Ultrasound-Guided (Needle In-Plane) Perineural Catheter Insertion: The Effect of Catheter Insertion Distance on Postoperative Analgesia

摘要

BackgroundWhen using ultrasound guidance to place a perineural catheter for a continuous peripheral nerve block, keeping the needle-in plane and nerve in short-axis results in a perpendicular needle-to-nerve orientation. Many have opined that when placing a perineural catheter via the needle, the acute angle may result in the catheter bypassing the target nerve when advanced beyond the needle tip. Theoretically, greater catheter tip-to-nerve distances result in less local anesthetic-to-nerve contact during the subsequent perineural infusion, leading to inferior analgesia. While a potential solution may appear obvious—advancing the catheter tip only to the tip of the needle, leaving the catheter tip at the target nerve—this technique has not been prospectively evaluated. We therefore hypothesized that during needle in-plane ultrasound-guided perineural catheter placement, inserting the catheter a minimum distance (0-1 cm) past the needle tip is associated with improved postoperative analgesia compared with inserting the catheter a more-traditional 5-6 cm past the needle tip.