Anaesthetists confidently visualise nerves
Dr Nathaniel Haslam performs a nerve block with the SonoSite M-Turbo.
Sunderland Royal Hospital has equipped a dedicated regional anaesthesia room with two SonoSite M-Turbo hand-carried ultrasound systems to perform nerve blocks and improve theatre efficiency in trauma and orthopaedics.
Dr Nathaniel Haslam, consultant anaesthetist with a special interest in regional anaesthesia, said: “The use of ultrasound-guided procedures is an important factor in improving the speed and reliability of blocks and, combined with a dedicated regional anaesthesia room, has enabled us to carry out a higher proportion of the surgical lists as day cases with better quality analgesia leading to faster recovery and fewer side-effects.”
Dr Haslam said that, by performing blocks between cases in a different room, anaesthesia and surgery for consecutive procedures can overlap, offering considerable time savings.
See the full report on page 26 of the August 2012 issue of RAD Magazine.