Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Intravenous regional anaesthesia (Bier block): review of 20 years’ experience

1989; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 36; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/bf03010770

1496-8975

Eli M. Brown, James T. McGriff, Robert Malinowski,

Dental Anxiety and Anesthesia Techniques

Our experience with intravenous regional anaesthesia (IVRA) in 1,906 patients over a period of 20 years has confirmed that this technique is safe and effective. IVRA may be used to provide anaesthesia for surgery involving both the upper and lower extremities. The need for supplemental medication is ordinarily minimal, so the technique is particularly suitable for short procedures in an ambulatory surgery centre. Yet, prolonged surgery may be performed using a "continuous technique." Although various local anaesthetic agents may be used to induce IVRA no drug has been demonstrated to be superior to lidocaine. The major cause of failure of the technique or serious adverse effects is technical error. A specific protocol for avoiding technical error is presented. Significantly, over a period of 20 years, there has not been any mortality or major morbidity. The incidence of adverse reactions was 1.6 per cent and consisted of minor events such as transient dizziness, tinnitus or mild bradycardia.