Peripheral regional anaesthesia and outcome: lessons learned from the last 10 years

The majority of peripheral regional anaesthetic techniques have been shown to produce benefits for patients and hospital efficiency. Further interventional trials are required to clarify such benefits for supraclavicular block and transversus abdominis plane block and to ascertain any longer-term benefits for almost all of the blocks reviewed. Permanent complications of peripheral regional anaesthetic blocks are rare but accurate estimates of their incidence are yet to be determined.