Clinical meaning
Regional anesthesia blocks nerve conduction in a specific body region by injecting local anesthetics near nerves or nerve plexuses, providing surgical anesthesia or post-operative analgesia while the patient remains awake or lightly sedated. Common techniques include spinal anesthesia (injecting into the subarachnoid space at L3-L4 or below), epidural anesthesia (injecting into the epidural space, often with catheter for continuous infusion), peripheral nerve blocks (targeting specific nerve trunks like femoral, sciatic, or brachial plexus), and local infiltration. Spinal anesthesia provides rapid onset, dense block with a predictable level and duration. Epidural anesthesia allows continuous infusion for prolonged analgesia. Complications include hypotension from sympathetic blockade (most common), post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) from CSF leak, urinary retention, local anesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST), and rarely epidural hematoma or abscess. Nursing assessment focuses on block level, hemodynamic stability, motor and sensory recovery, and detection of complications.