Investigation into the visual perceptive ability of anaesthetists during ultrasound-guided interscalene and femoral blocks conducted on soft embalmed cadavers: a randomised single-blind study.

BACKGROUND: Errors may occur during regional anaesthesia whilst searching for nerves, needle tips, and test doses. Poor visual search impacts on decision making, clinical intervention, and patient safety. METHODS: We conducted a randomised single-blind study in a single university hospital. Twenty trainees and two consultants examined the paired B-mode and fused B-mode and elastography video recordings of 24 interscalene and 24 femoral blocks conducted on two soft embalmed cadavers. Perineural injection was randomised equally to 0.25, 0.5, and 1.0 ml volumes. Tissue displacement perceived on both imaging modalities was defined as 'target' or 'distractor'. Our primary objective was to test the anaesthetists' perception of the number and proportion of targets and distractors on B-mode and fused elastography videos collected during femoral and sciatic nerve block on soft embalmed cadavers. Our secondary objectives were to determine the differences between novices and experts, and between test-dose volumes, and to measure the area and brightness of spread and strain patterns. RESULTS: All anaesthetists recognised perineural spread using 0.25 ml volumes. Distractor patterns were recognised in 133 (12%) of B-mode and in 403 (38%) of fused B-mode and elastography patterns; P<0.001. With elastography, novice recognition improved from 12 to 37% (P<0.001), and consultant recognition increased from 24 to 53%; P<0.001. Distractor recognition improved from 8 to 31% using 0.25 ml volumes (P<0.001), and from 15 to 45% using 1 ml volumes (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Visual search improved with fusion elastography, increased volume, and consultants. A need exists to investigate image search strategies.

The feasibility of micro-ultrasound as a tool to image peripheral nerves.

Despite widespread use of ultrasound imaging to guide needle placement, the incidence of transient and permanent nerve damage as a complication of regional anaesthesia has not changed over the last decade. In view of the controversy surrounding intraneural injection there is a need to understand the structural changes caused by subepineural and subperineural needle penetration. Clinical ultrasound machines do not provide adequate anatomical resolution, and anaesthetists have difficulty judging the precise location of the needle tip relative to the epineurium. We studied the suitability of micro-ultrasound imaging (which offers anatomical resolution better than 100 µm) as a tool for viewing neural anatomy and deformation caused by needle insertion. The primary objective was to assess micro-ultrasound imaging as a method to view fascicles within nerves resected from fresh and soft-embalmed cadavers. Secondary objectives were to observe any disruption of the neural anatomy caused by anaesthetic needle penetration, and to assess the integrity of fresh and Thiel method soft-embalmed nerves, after handling and during needle insertion using ultrasound images and histology. We imaged nine nerves from the left and right sides of fresh and soft-embalmed cadavers. A regional block needle was inserted into three median nerves. We identified fascicles > 0.4 mm in width using micro-ultrasound. Subepineural needle placement was associated with denting, rotation and elastic deformation of fascicles, whereas subperineural needle insertion split fascicles permanently.

Trainee anaesthetist diagnosis of intraneural injection-a study comparing B-mode ultrasound with the fusion of B-mode and elastography in the soft embalmed Thiel cadaver model.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of intraneural injection during trainee anaesthetist ultrasound guided nerve block varies between 16% in experts and up to 35% in trainees. We hypothesized that elastography, an ultrasound-based technology that presents colour images of tissue strain, had the potential to improve trainee diagnosis of intraneural injection during UGRA, when integrated with B-Mode ultrasound onto a single image. METHODS: We recorded 40 median nerve blocks randomly allocated to 0.25 ml, 0.5 ml, 1 ml volumes to five sites, on both arms of two soft embalmed cadavers, using a dedicated B-Mode ultrasound and elastography transducer. We wrote software to fuse elastogram and B-Mode videos, then asked 20 trainee anaesthetists whether injection was intraneural or extraneural when seeing B-Mode videos, adjacent B-Mode and elastogram videos, fusion elastography videos or repeated B-Mode ultrasound videos. RESULTS: Fusion elastography improved the diagnosis of intraneural injection compared with B-Mode ultrasound, Diagnostic Odds Ratio (DOR) (95%CI) 21.7 (14.5 - 33.3) vs DOR 7.4 (5.2 - 10.6), P < 0.001. Compared with extraneural injection, intraneural injection was identified on fusion elastography as a distinct, brighter translucent image, geometric ratio 0.33 (95%CI: 0.16 - 0.49) P < 0.001. Fusion elastography was associated with greater trainee diagnostic confidence, OR (95%CI) 1.89 (1.69 - 2.11), P < 0.001, and an improvement in reliability, Kappa 0.60 (0.55 - 0.66). CONCLUSIONS: Fusion elastography improved the accuracy, reliability and confidence of trainee anaesthetist diagnosis of intraneural injection.

Physical properties and functional alignment of soft-embalmed Thiel human cadaver when used as a simulator for ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia.

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the physical properties and functional alignment of the soft-embalmed Thiel cadaver as follows: by assessing tissue visibility; by measuring its acoustic, mechanical and elastic properties; by evaluating its durability in response to repeated injection; and by aligning images with humans. METHODS: In four soft-embalmed Thiel cadavers, we conducted three independent studies. We assessed the following factors: (i) soft tissue visibility in a single cadaver for 28 weeks after embalming; (ii) the displacement of tissues in response to 1 and 5 ml interscalene and femoral nerve blocks in a single cadaver; and (iii) the stiffness of nerves and perineural tissue in two cadavers. We aligned our findings with ultrasound images from three patients and one volunteer. Durability was qualified by assessing B-mode images from repetitive injections during supervised training. RESULTS: There was no difference in visibility of nerves between 2 and 28 weeks after embalming {geometric mean ratio 1.13 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.75-1.68], P=1.0}. Mean tissue displacement was similar for cadaver femoral and interscalene blocks [geometric mean ratio 1.02 (95% CI: 0.59-1.78), P=0.86], and for 1 and 5 ml injection volumes [geometric mean ratio 0.84 (95% CI: 0.70-1.01), P=0.19]. Cadavers had higher intraneural than extraneural stiffness [Young's modulus; geometric mean ratio 3.05 (95% CI: 2.98-3.12), P<0.001] and minimal distortion of anatomy when conducting 934 left-sided interscalene blocks on the same cadaver throughout a 10 day period. CONCLUSIONS: The soft-embalmed Thiel cadaver is a highly durable simulator that has excellent physical and functional properties that allow repeated injection for intensive ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia training.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of ultrasound versus electrical stimulation for peripheral nerve location and blockade.

We systematically reviewed peripheral nerve blockade guided by ultrasound versus electrical stimulation. We included 26 comparisons in 23 randomised controlled trials of 2125 participants. Ultrasound reduced the rate of pain during the procedure, relative risk (95% CI) 0.60 (0.41-0.89), p = 0.01. Ultrasound with or without electrical stimulation reduced the rate of analgesic or anaesthetic rescue versus electrical stimulation alone, relative risk (95% CI) 0.40 (0.29-0.54) and 0.29 (0.16-0.52), respectively, p < 0.0001 for both. The rate of rescue was unaffected by the addition of electrical stimulation to ultrasound, relative risk (95% CI) 1.07 (0.54-2.10), p = 0.85. Ultrasound, with or without electrical stimulation, reduced the pooled rate of vascular puncture, relative risk (95% CI) 0.23 (0.15-0.37), p < 0.0001. There was no difference in the rate of postoperative neurological side-effects, relative risk (95% CI) 0.76 (0.53-1.09), p = 0.13.

A randomised, single-blind technical study comparing the ultrasonic visibility of smooth-surfaced and textured needles in a soft embalmed cadaver model.

Visibility of the needle tip and shaft is important during ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia in order to prevent nerve trauma. Tip and shaft visibility is reduced when needles are inserted in-plane at wide angles and out-of-plane at narrow angles to the ultrasound probe. Although textured needles are more reflective than smooth needles, we hypothesised that poor visibility of the tip and shaft still remained using the above angle-probe combinations. In a single-blind study, we compared the visibility of a textured Tuohy needle, a textured single-shot needle and a conventional smooth-surfaced Tuohy needle when inserted into the biceps and deltoid muscles of a soft embalmed cadaver. One hundred and forty-four needles were block-randomised to in-plane and out-of-plane insertions at 30°, 45°, 60° and 75° to the ultrasound beam. Two blinded raters assessed needle tip visibility on video recordings of the insertions using a binary scale (0 = not visible, 1 = visible) and shaft visibility using a 5-point Likert scale. The median (IQR [range]) proportions of visible needle tips were 83% (67-83 [50-100]%) for the textured Tuohy, 75% (67-83 [33-83]%) for the textured single-shot needle and 33% (33-46 [0-50]%) for the smooth-surfaced Tuohy (p = 0.0007). Median (IQR [range]) needle shaft visibility was rated as 4.0 (3.5-4.7 [3.0-4.9]) for the textured Tuohy, 4.0 (3.8-4.5 [2.7-4.9]) for the textured single-shot needle and 3.0 (2.4-3.3 [2.3-3.5]) for the smooth-surfaced Tuohy (p = 0.015). Nevertheless, visibility was reduced at wide angles in-plane and narrow angles out-of-plane both for needle tips (p = 0.004) and shafts (p = 0.005).

Translation of sonoelastography from Thiel cadaver to patients for peripheral nerve blocks.

Ultrasound guidance is now common in regional anaesthesia practice, but remains limited by poor visibility of the needle tip and poor quantification of local anaesthetic spread. Sonoelastography based on tissue compression is a technique depicting tissue strain. Hitherto used largely for tumour diagnosis, we used it in both Thiel embalmed cadavers and two patients receiving interscalene and femoral blocks to observe changes in tissue strain during local anaesthetic injection. The primary aim of our study was to measure the area under the curve (weighted for time) of the strain pattern in Thiel perineural tissue when using a range of volumes of embalming fluid (0.25, 0.5, 1, 2.5, 5 and 7.5 ml) for interscalene and femoral blocks using sonoelastography. Our secondary aims were to evaluate static images of anatomy and videos of needle insertion and perineural injection using combined B-Mode ultrasound and sonoelastography. Independent raters assessed the anatomy and spread using a 7-point Likert scale, ranked from extremely poor to extremely good. We performed 83 blocks in cadavers. Concordance between both raters was good, with weighted Kappa (95% CI) 0.66 (0.61-0.71). The characteristics of spread were similar with both interscalene and femoral block; spread increased with injectate volume up to 1 ml. Analysis of variance showed differences in spread between injection volumes (p = 0.009), but not between regional blocks (p = 0.05). Post-hoc analysis showed greater spread with 1 and 2.5 ml volumes compared with 0.25 ml. In patients, visibility of strain during injection was better with sonoelastography than with B-Mode ultrasound and showed a dose response from 1 to 5 ml volumes of local anaesthetic. Colour strain recognition using sonoelastography offers the ability to differentiate between nerve and surrounding tissue during local anaesthetic injection by improving visibility of spread (p = 0.04).