Ultrasound Machines Play an Important Role in “Awake Surgery”
How are ultrasound machines providing patients with the option to stay awake during surgery? Well, to avoid long recovery times and complications from general anesthesia, many new procedures are being done while the patient is fully awake; but it is only possible through the use of ultrasound guided anesthetics.
Now, instead of dealing with side effects from anesthesia and being confined to a hospital bed for days, “awake surgery” is allowing a patient to go home sooner, often on the same day that a surgery was performed. This new technology is making routine operations safer and more efficient, especially for people who are at high risk of complications from general anesthesia.
Using a regional ultrasound procedure, local anesthetic can be administered to block nerve endings within the area of surgery. This is just another example of an innovative technique that uses ultrasound technology in a new way, and recent advances in compact ultrasound machines have made this type of procedure more accessible to the general population.
This type of surgery requires an injection, which takes between 20 and 40 minutes to go into effect. In surgeries of the hand or upper limbs, this injection is made in the nerves of the brachial plexus, which results in the arm becoming immobilized and completely numb. In lower limb procedures, an injection is given in the sciatic nerves, either behind the knee or under the buttocks. Depending on the type of drug used, patients can feel numb for up to 18 hours and get relief from post-surgical pain for up to 24 hours.
“Awake surgery” using ultrasound machines is still used primarily in procedures on the limbs, but it has also been used for heart and brain surgery. Only time will tell how widely this procedure will be used in the surgical suite, but based on the results thus far it is here to stay.
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