Continuous chloroprocaine paravertebral infusions for postoperative analgesia in infants and very young children.

Abstract

Infants having regional anesthesia (RA) haveincreased risk for local anesthetic systemic toxicityand, following epidural bupivacaine infusions, can have high plasma bupivacaine concentrations.1 Limited evidence supports the effective use of 2-chloroprocaine in infant epidural infusions2,3 but reports of peripheral nerve blocks with 2-chloroprocaine are sparse. Paravertebral nerve blocks (PVNBs) are alternatives to epidural analgesia for thoracic and abdominal surgeries with limited reports on 2-chloroprocaine PVNB in infants. We provide a retrospective review of our experience using 1.5% 2-chloroprocaine PVNB infusionsin infants.