Postoperative pain relief in children from the parascalene injection technique.
Nineteen pediatric patients aged 6 months to 12 years scheduled for elective upper extremity surgery were randomly assigned to receive either a parascalene block or sham injection. Both groups received a potent inhalational agent for operative anesthesia. At completion of surgery, the treatment group received an injection of 0.5 ml/kg 0.25% bupivacaine with 1:200,000 epinephrine into the brachial plexus via the parascalene approach with the aid of a nerve stimulator; the control group received a subcutaneous needle puncture only. Patients in the parascalene group had superior postoperative analgesia, as evidenced by significantly less opioid requirement in the first 12 postoperative hours and by significantly lower scores on an objective pain scale. We found the parascalene approach to the brachial plexus a simple and reliable analgesic technique in anesthetized children.
McNeely
J K
JK
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Hoffman
G M
GM
Eckert
J E
JE
D000293:Adolescent; D001132:Arm / Q000601:surgery*; D001917:Brachial Plexus; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007267:Injections / Q000379:methods; D009334:Neck Muscles; D009407:Nerve Block / Q000379:methods*; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000628:therapy*; D013223:Statistics as Topic