COMPARISON OF PLEXUS BRACHIAL BLOCKADE EFFECT BY SUPRACLAVICULAR AND AXILLARY APPROACH - OUR EXPERIENCE

Introduction: Brachialis plexus block is a frequently used method of regional anesthesia that can be performed in several ways and locations. It has been successfully performed to provide good anesthesia and analgesia lasting several hours for operative procedures on hands. It can be performed by paresthesia technique or by ultrasound that has almost pushed out the old conventional technique since it allows the visualization of the blockade performance.

Target: In the paper we use our sample to try to determine which of the two locations of the blockageis more favorable for the patient, and which one gives a higher percentage of success or a better sensory blockade.

Method: This is a retrospective study and includes 40 patients of both sexes that were operated on at the Clinic for Traumatology and the Clinic for Plastic Surgery of the University Clinical Center in Sarajevo in the period from 30 August 1993 to 30 August 1994. Patients were divided into two groups. Group I were patients who had an axillary approach to plexus brachialis (n-21) ASA I-II. Group II were patients who had supraclavicular access to plexus brachialis (n-19) ASA I-II. All patients received 0.5 ml / kg Bupivacaine 0.5%. In the study, we analyzed sex, age, duration of blockade and complications. Analgesia and motor block were evaluated 20 minutes after the local anesthetic injection. The complete block is defined as analgesia in all dermatomes (C5-Th1) 20 minutes after injection.

The Results: Group I had 20 male and 1 female patients while group II had 17 male and 2 female patients. The supraclavicular block enabled complete blockade in 18 patients (95.23%), and the axillary approach had a successful blockade in 17 patients (80.95%). In both groups the corresponding motor block was similar. The start of the engine block was similar in both groups. There were no significant complications in either group.

Conclusion: Regarding clinical efficacy, both brachial plexus blocking approaches provided a good motor block, anesthesia and analgesia for the forearm or hand surgery. Supraclavicular approach proved to be more favorable.