Intravenous Locoregional Anesthesia: An Alternative of Choice in a Country with Limited Resources (Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire)

Abstract

Background: ALRIV, a simple, reliable, inexpensive and easily reproducible technique, is still little practised in sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of this study is to describe our practice in order to popularize this anesthetic technique.
 Methods: This was a prospective and descriptive study covering a 12-month period. All patients admitted for surgical management of upper limb except the arm and lower limb except the thigh were included. The parameters studied were epidemiological, clinical, therapeutic, anaesthetic and evolutionary.
 Results: We selected 73 patients out of 675 (10.81%). The majority of the patients were seen in the framework of a regulated surgery against only 13.69% in emergency. The operative indications were: removal of osteosynthesis materials (52.05%), limb osteosynthesis (43.83%) and phlegmon evacuation (4.10%). The double tourniquet technique was used in (93.15%). Lidocaine 0.5% was used at a dose of 0.5ml/kg. The average duration of the procedures was 57.28 minutes. Postoperatively, all our patients received multimodal analgesia. In the postoperative monitoring room, 64.38% of patients did not experience any discomfort or pain.
 Conclusion: ALRIV is a simple technique of peripheral local anaesthesia that is easy to teach, consistently effective and inexpensive.