Korean J Anesthesiol.  1986 Apr;19(2):141-148.

Clinical Evaluation of the Anesthetie Methods for the Surgery of the Upper Extremity

• Seo HM
• Kim DH
• Lee JR
• Song HS

Abstract

473 patients who underwent orthopedic surgery of the upper extremities from July 1978 to August 1983 were studied and the results are as follows. 1) Among 473 patients 294 patients given general anesthesis. Axillary brachial piexus block(141 cases), intraveonus regional anesthesia(10 cases), interscalene block(2 cases) and continuous brachial plexus block were given to the rest of the patients. 2) 267 patients were male and 106 patients were female. Age distribution was from 2 to 74 years. 3) Physical status of the patients was A.S.A. (American Society of Anesthesiologists) class 2(52.5%), class 1(43.4%), class 3(4.4%) in the order. 47.2% of the patients underwent emergency operation. 4) There was a tendency that regional anesthesis has been increasing year by year. 5) The type of operations were open reduction(160cases), tendon repair(112cases), and surgery for neuropathy(65 cases). 6) The operations for upper arm, elbow, and forearm were performed mostly under general anesthesia, while regional anesthesia prevailled for hand, wrist, and digits operations. 7) Brachial plexus block was considered as a method of choice for upper extremity surgery, especially for emergency surgical procedures in patients with significant medical problems. 8) A new method was tried in which a flexible disaposable intravenous catheter was introduced into the neurovascular sheath in the axilla and used for injection of local anesthetic solutions to block the axillary brachial plexus. The catheter method constitutes an interesting alternative to the conventional needle techniques and offers a continuous axillary block and a method for postoperative pain relief.

MeSH Terms

Age Distribution
Anesthesia, Conduction
Anesthesia, General
Arm
Axilla
Brachial Plexus
Catheters
Elbow
Emergencies
Female
Forearm
Hand
Humans
Male
Needles
Orthopedics
Pain, Postoperative
Tendons
Upper Extremity*
Wrist