Neurological Complications After Regional Anesthesia: Contemporary Estimates of Risk

Regional anesthesia (RA) provides excellent anesthesia and analgesia for many surgical procedures. Anesthesiologists and patients must understand the risks in addition to the benefits of RA to make an informed choice of anesthetic technique. Many studies that have investigated neurological complications after RA are dated, and do not reflect the increasing indications and applications of RA nor the advances in training and techniques. In this brief narrative review we collate the contemporary investigations of neurological complications after the most common RA techniques.

We reviewed all 32 studies published between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2005 where the primary intent was to investigate neurological complications of RA.