Skip Navigation

Continuing Education in Anaesthesia, Critical Care & Pain 2007 7(5):162-166; doi:10.1093/bjaceaccp/mkm029
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow CME/CE:
Take the course for this article:
 CEACCP, Volume 7 – Issue 5, Octo...
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mannion, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Mannion, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?


© The Board of Management and Trustees of the British Journal of Anaesthesia [2007]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Psoas compartment block

Stephen Mannion, MRCPI FCARCSI MD
Consultant Anaesthetist
Department of Anaesthesia
South Infirmary-Victoria University Hospital
Old Blackrock Rd
Cork
Ireland
Tel: +353 021 49 26 100 Fax: +353 021 43 10 153 E-mail: mannionstephen@hotmail.com

Key Words: Psoas compartment block consistently blocks the femoral, lateral femoral cutaneous, and obturator nerves (the true ‘3-in-1’ block). • It provides excellent postoperative analgesia after major hip and knee surgery. • Combined with a sciatic nerve block, it provides unilateral lower limb anaesthesia below the hip. • Sedation is required for patient comfort. • The block must be monitored and evaluated as for neuraxial block in order to avoid serious complications.

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Psoas compartment block (PCB) is a peripheral regional anaesthetic technique that blocks the main components of the lumbar plexus, namely the femoral, lateral femoral cutaneous (LFC), and obturator nerves as they run within the psoas major muscle. The psoas compartment block is also known as the posterior lumbar plexus block.

A posterior approach to the lumbar plexus was first described by Winnie and colleagues.1 They described an approach for ‘lumbosacral’ block but provided no data on the extent of neural block. The term ‘psoas compartment block’ was coined by Chayen and colleagues2 to describe a loss of resistance technique with injection of solution into the ‘compartment’ between the quadratus lumborum and psoas major muscles. There have been a number of other approaches described since, including an approach by Capdevila and colleagues3 based on modifications to Winnie's landmarks using computed tomography.


   Clinical anatomy
 
The lumbar plexus is formed by the first to the . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   Imaging
 
Ultrasound

Magnetic resonance imaging

Computed tomography


   Technique
 
Single shot

Continuous psoas compartment block


   Clinical indications
 

   Evidence-based current practice
 
Anaesthesia

Analgesia


   Controversies
 

   Conclusions
 

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?