Anestéziológia a intenzívna medicína 1/2021

Regional anesthesia in Slovakia not only for the chosen ones

What does the future hold for regional anaesthesia? Patient access to regional anaesthesia across our country is already very low. Many anaesthesiologists will see regional anaesthesia as an overcomplicated and niche specialty. We need to rationalize the approach to regional anaesthesia delivery by non-experts and focus more on working out how to optimise widespread learning, competence and pathway implementation of a small number of basic versatile nerve blocks. Realistically, this small number of basic nerve blocks can provide reliable anaesthesia and analgesia for the vast majority of operative procedures. Suggested package of basic blocks could become a core anaesthetic competency skill for non-regional specialist anaesthesiologists. By moving away from the concept of the „many blocks for the few“ to „a few blocks for the many“, regional anaesthesia can grow from a niche subspecialty to a core component of anaesthetic care available to all.

Keywords: regional anaesthesia, peripheral nerve blocks, education, competency, implementation