Special Devices for Regional Anaesthesia

Abstract

The rapid growth of regional anaesthesia in the last 20 years has resulted in an increasing number of technical devices. Technical resources play a very considerable role in modern regional anaesthesia and they are being introduced to facilitate the quality performance of this type of anaesthesia. The task of this survey is to summarise the most important technical devices currently utilised for regional anaesthesia and to provide a review of the history of their introduction. Technical devices for performing regional anaesthesia could be divided in seven groups: 1) neurostimulation and simple needles and catheters; 2) neurostimulator with transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TENS); 3) ultrasonograph with a device to fix the probe; 4) devices for injection of local anaesthetics, such as perfusors, patient controlled analgesia systems and elastomeric infusion systems; 5) arm, leg and instruments supports; 6) regional anaesthesia injection monitor and data register devices, and 7) catheter fastenings and auxiliary materials. It is recommended that all of the apparatus applied should be classified to make it easier to acquire more immediate and understanding, and be easy to add this knowledge to the overall checklist before starting anaesthesia. The history of the introduction of technical equipment shows how much time was necessary for the development of modern regional anaesthesia methods.