Ultrasound guided nerve blocks are generally safe. However, there is a small but real associated risk of needle-related complications such as nerve injury. Injections with a pressure of more than 15 psi into the endoneural space, lead demonstrably to serious lasting neurological complications and some data supports the use of monitors to limit injection pressure during these procedures.
Please explain your experiences and opinions about it.
As a clinician I think it would be a very good idea to monitor injection pressure. Fast, high pressure injections certainly cause the patient significant pain. Slow injections of low pressure will make the patient your friend. I had a infra-orbital/retrobulbar block for cataract surgery recently. There’s not a lot of space for the anaesthetic to go into and was sore, but after about 30 seconds the block was profound and painless. Perhaps measuring the injection pressure or having a high pressure alarm would have been clinically useful.
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