Regional anaesthesia for awake urgent upper limb surgery in children: a prospective cohort study

Abstract

Peripheral regional anaesthesia is used rarely as the sole anaesthetic technique in children and is often combined with deep sedation or general anaesthesia for analgesic purposes. No literature addresses the minimum age at which regional anaesthesia can be considered to facilitate awake surgery in children. We hypothesised that children of school age could undergo awake urgent upper limb surgery with regional anaesthesia supported by anxiety-reduction strategies.