The following is a summary of “Digital Nerve Blocks: A Comprehensive Review of Techniques” published in the October 2022 issue of Emergency Medicine by Gottlieb et al.
Patients frequently show themselves at emergency departments with injuries to their fingers and toes as the primary reason for their visit. To be able to give appropriate care to patients who have experienced injuries of this sort, it is vital for doctors who work in emergency medicine to be knowledgeable about the various procedures for anesthetizing the digit. This is because many different techniques can be used. For the purpose of this investigation, researchers looked through the academic literature available on PubMed to determine the numerous approaches to digital nerve blockades as well as the data that is linked with each of those approaches.
The most common techniques for blocking the digital nerves are the dorsal web space block, the transthecal block, the volar subcutaneous block, and the circumferential (3-sided and 4-sided) ring block. The success rate can range from 60% to 100% of successful attempts. It is absolutely necessary to take into account both the benefits and the negatives that are unique to each block.
When it comes to the anesthesia of the finger and toe, the practitioner of emergency care has access to several various treatment options from which to select the most appropriate one. This article offers a quick description of the most important tactics, variations on these techniques, and the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736467922004280
