Peripheral regional techniques for acute pain treatment

Regional anaesthesia has many advantages over systemic analgesia alone for postoperative pain, enhanced recovery and rehabilitation. Advances in continuous peripheral nerve block techniques enable the benefits of single injection blockade to be extended, providing prolonged, site-specific analgesia. A wide range of equipment, local anaesthetic solutions and adjuvants can be used to provide peripheral nerve blockade. In this article we review equipment, drugs, techniques, indications, benefits and potential complications of peripheral nerve blockade.