Efficacy of Peripheral Nerve Stimulator in Assessing Sensory Nerve Block Level of Spinal Anesthesia

Various methods are used to assess the level of anesthesia block after spinal anesthesia. Among them, ice cubes, alcohol swabs, and needles are commonly used in the clinical setting, but ice is limited by difficulties with management and transportation, and needle assessment has problems owing to the risk of pain, infection, and injury to the patient.

Hence, the alcohol swab is commonly used in practice. However, the absence of pain is more important in the surgical process, and assessing the pain block level is more feasible in practice than assessing the sensory nerve block level using the alcohol swab.

Therefore, it seems to be better to use the peripheral nerve stimulator for the accurate assessment of the pain block level. This has the advantage of continuous measurement of the block level, which can be used in a practical manner in conjunction with the surgical incision.

Hence, the author compared the conventional method using the alcohol swab with the use of the peripheral nerve stimulator to determine which method is more practical in the measurement of spinal anesthesia block level.

Inclusion Criteria:

• The study subjects were adult patients, 20-65 years old, who were going to have orthopedic surgery on the infrapatellar area with spinal anesthesia planned and who fell under the American Society of Anesthesiologist physical status classifications of 1 or 2.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who could not read or understand the consent materials or who had pregnancy, hypertension, diabetes, a defect in blood coagulation, cardiovascular disease, or administration of cardiovascular medications were excluded from the study.