Impact of Regional Anesthesia on Perioperative Outcomes

Abstract

The utilization of regional anesthesia, be it neuraxial or peripheral nerve blocks, for various surgery settings and its impact on perioperative outcomes has been subject of evolving research in the last 10–15 years. Still, controversies persist on specific patient populations that might benefit from regional anesthetic techniques. In this review, the authors aim to give an overview of the impact regional anesthesia has on various outcomes by reviewing available clinical evidence while incorporating data from large database trials into our discussion. We find that causal relationships to individual outcomes are hard to establish and questions of superiority are still a matter of viewpoint, but also that little evidence exists suggesting inferior outcomes of regional anesthesia compared to general anesthesia.