R
egional anesthesia provides potent
perioperative pain control, reduces
the risks of problematic complica-
tions and decreases the need for
unnecessary opioid prescriptions. It's
a patient- and staff-satisfier. Patients benefit from a
minimizing of post-operative pain and the excessive
grogginess caused by general anesthesia.
Anesthesiologists also have incredible satisfaction
with precise hands-on techniques that lead to
improvements in patient care.
In my own practice, I split my time between
managing acute pain and chronic pain. Because of
my multimodal role in pain medicine, I'm very
sensitive to caring for patients who have compli-
cated medical and pain histories because I know
they can suffer significant discomfort from even
relatively simple surgeries.
Regional anesthesia is one of the most power-
ful tools I have at my disposal to reduce their
pain. What's more, as the variety of nerve blocks
and medication choices continue to evolve and
grow, regional anesthesia will be used during
more types of surgeries and more facilities will
benefit from incorporating it into their pain man-
agement practices.
2 0 • S U P P L E M E N T
T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A R C H 2 0 2 1
Reap the Many Rewards of Regional Anesthesia
Peripheral nerve blocks provide targeted
pain relief that satisfies patients and providers.
BLOCK PARTY Peripheral nerve blocks allow providers to forgo, or at least lessen, the use of general anesthesia in surgical cases.
Karina Gritsenko, MD | Bronx, N.Y.
Karina
Gritsenko
