Journal of ultrasound in medicine : official journal of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Ultrasound guidance versus electrical stimulation for femoral perineural catheter insertion.
Continuous femoral nerve blocks provide potent analgesia and other benefits after knee surgery. Perineural catheter placement techniques using ultrasound guidance and electrical stimulation (ES) have been described, but the optimal method remains undetermined. We tested the hypothesis that ultrasound guidance alone requires less time for femoral perineural catheter insertion and produces equivalent results compared with ES alone. ⋯ Placement of femoral perineural catheters takes less time with ultrasound guidance compared with ES. In addition, ultrasound guidance produces less procedure-related pain and prevents inadvertent vascular puncture.