REGIONAL ANESTHESIA FOR THE TRAUMA PATIENT

Abstract

SUMMARY T raffic accidents kill more than a million people every year worldwide, with Egypt alone suffering more than 7,000 deaths annually. Anesthesia for trauma patients is one of the greatest challenges in anesthesia. Anesthesiologists have particular skills in the provision of pain relief and this is of vital importance in the early and consequent management of the injured patient. Analgesia should be regarded as part of the resuscitation process because it not only brings pain relief, but also improves hemodynamic stability resulting in improved organ and tissue perfusion. Regional anesthesia is considered one of those modalities for pain management either alone or in combination with general anesthesia or even be used for postoperative pain management. In this essay we discuss the pathophysiology of trauma and pain and its importance in wars, also we discuss in another chapter the advantages and disadvantages of application of regional anesthesia in trauma patients. Finally we discuss different techniques of regional anesthesia application and different methods of identification of nerves to be blocked including the usage of ultrasound which is so promising in this field.