Peripheral nerve blocks for acute pain management

Peripheral nerve blocks provide analgesia or anaesthesia to targeted areas of the body. Blockade is usually performed under ultrasound guidance to ensure accurate needle or catheter placement and minimise the risk of inadvertent intravascular or intraneural injection of local anaesthetic.

Peripheral nerve blocks are useful for perioperative analgesia (for some surgical procedures). Analgesia can last for 6 to 12 hours after a single dose. Local anaesthetic administered via a catheter can provide prolonged analgesia using programmed intermittent boluses, patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) or continuous infusion.

For detailed information on commonly used peripheral nerves blocks (eg digital nerve blocks, femoral nerve blocks), see here.