Outpatient regional anesthesia for foot and ankle surgery

In conclusion, several highly effective regional anesthesia techniques can be used to provide excellent surgical anesthesia and good postoperative analgesia for FAS. Although there is a paucity of well-designed clinical trials comparing the outcomes of PSNB with those of other anesthesia techniques, most experts would agree that PSNB offers advantages over general, spinal, epidural, and ankle block anesthesia, or surgical infiltration in isolation, in the ambulatory surgery setting. These blocks are also advantageous in patients with diabetes mellitus and in patients with significant concomitant diseases, in which nausea, vomiting, urinary obstruction, orthostatic hypotension, postdural puncture headache, and postoperative pain present significant postoperative challenges and frequently cause unplanned admissions. In addition, PSNB results in superior postoperative analgesia in the immediate postoperative period. With the growing trend toward outpatient surgery, an anesthetic technique must provide rapid awakening and recovery and good postoperative pain control. PSNB meets both of these requirements. Consequently, these techniques are likely to play an increasingly important role in ambulatory anesthesia clinical practice.