Clinical Research Directory

Parasagittal Vs Cornerpocket Approaches

Brachial plexus blocks are widely used to provide anesthesia for upper limb surgery. Although many different approaches to the brachial plexus block have been described, there is widespread acceptance that injecting at the supraclavicular level is the most reliable method in terms of spread of local anesthetic agent. Each approach of ultrasound guided supraclavicular brachial plexus block (US -SCBPB ) has a different success rate and complications. . A supraclavicular block can provide effective surgical anesthesia of the forearm and hand. The most commonly performed US- SCBPB is the corner pocket approach which was described by Chan et al with probe resting posterior to the clavicle, with postero latero-anteromedial orientation provides a very stable location, but has the disadvantage of "looking" across the first rib, with the apex of the lung visualized close to thePlexus . A new Parasagittal approach for brachial plexus block at the supraclavicular level was studied by Adrian Searle where the arc of the first rib was used to provide a deep limit to needle transit in order to minimize the risk of pneumothorax ;the aim of our study is to further evaluate the parasagittal approach for brachial plexus block and compare it with the popular corner pocket approach