Continuous peripheral nerve blocks at home: A review

Postoperative analgesia is generally limited to 12-16 h or less after single-injection regional nerve blocks. Postoperative analgesia may be provided with a local anesthetic infusion via a perineural catheter after initial regional block resolution. This technique may now be used in the outpatient setting with the relatively recent introduction of reliable, portable infusion pumps. In this review article, we summarize the available published data related to this new analgesic technique and highlight important issues related specifically to perineural infusion provided in patients' own homes. Topics include infusion benefits and risks, indications and patient selection criteria, catheter, infusion pump, dosing regimen, and infusate selection, and issues related specifically to home-care.