Perioperative Nerve Blocks

In addition to chronic pain, we are also able to treat acute pain. This is pain that is associated maybe postoperatively or perioperatively around the time of surgical procedures having been performed. If you have had a hip surgery, we can provide catheters placed around the nerves of the hip that will alleviate your pain for 2 or 3 days and control those symptoms. The same thing holds for anything in the upper extremity, arm or hand surgery. We are able to provide nerve blocks to those nerves that control pain that can control pain symptoms up to 18 hours after surgery. We can do this for just about any procedure that a surgeon can use by addressing those nerves and those areas both as an inpatient or outpatient. In order to have a perioperative nerve block, usually a discussion between you and the anesthesiologist or you and your surgeon, you can request this as a patient. For instance, if you are having a knee surgery and you want to have additional pain control, then you can request to have a lumbar plexus sciatic nerve block, or a peripheral nerve block, before surgery. This can last up to 18 hours after surgery such that you don’t have to have narcotics to control your pain. This is beneficial in many ways, one of which is you are able to eat and tolerate oral medications and food faster because your motility is actually not slowed to the same degree as having a general anesthetic.