Settled science or unwarranted variation in local anesthetic dosing? An analysis from an International Registry of Regional Anesthesiology.

Quality Regional Anesthesia Safety

Journal

Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
ISSN: 1532-8651
Titre abrégé: Reg Anesth Pain Med
Pays: England
ID NLM: 9804508

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
06 Sep 2019
Historique:
received: 23 04 2019
revised: 11 08 2019
accepted: 21 08 2019
entrez: 9 9 2019
pubmed: 9 9 2019
medline: 9 9 2019
Statut: aheadofprint

Résumé

Variation in clinical practice is often considered unwarranted when it does not reflect patient preference or evidence-based medicine. Complications from regional anesthesia such as nerve injury and systemic toxicity are dose dependent. It is currently unclear if there is significant variation with the dosing of local anesthetics (LA) in the context of the modern practice of peripheral regional anesthesia. We analyzed data from the International Registry of Regional Anesthesia that include prospective data on peripheral regional anesthesia procedures from 21 centers located around the world. Using data from years 2011 to 2017, our primary aim was to characterize the degree of variation in dosing of LA for the top 10 most commonly performed single injection peripheral nerve blocks. Our secondary aim was to identify potential drivers of this variation. Among the 26 457 peripheral blocks performed, mean (±SD) LA dose per block in ropivacaine equivalents was 125.1±51.2 mg and 1.6±0.7 for mg/kg. There was large variation across all block types, with the highest variation (measured by interdecile range) in axillary blocks (143.8 mg) and lowest in interscalene blocks (83.3 mg). In a regression analysis, dose was primarily associated with the hospital (Cohen's f=0.37) where the block was administered and block type (f=0.38), less so with age (f=0.02), weight (f=0.12), gender (f=0.05) or LA (f=0.17) used. Hospital site had strong impact on variation in LA dose (f=0.88). Variation was not significantly associated with number of blocks performed by hospital site. Large variation in dosing for regional blocks exists within and among hospitals, which is unlikely to be warranted. For many blocks, the variation of dosing is larger than the mean dose. Hospital site had strong impact on variation in LA dose and moderate impact on mean LA dose.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
Variation in clinical practice is often considered unwarranted when it does not reflect patient preference or evidence-based medicine. Complications from regional anesthesia such as nerve injury and systemic toxicity are dose dependent. It is currently unclear if there is significant variation with the dosing of local anesthetics (LA) in the context of the modern practice of peripheral regional anesthesia.
METHODS METHODS
We analyzed data from the International Registry of Regional Anesthesia that include prospective data on peripheral regional anesthesia procedures from 21 centers located around the world. Using data from years 2011 to 2017, our primary aim was to characterize the degree of variation in dosing of LA for the top 10 most commonly performed single injection peripheral nerve blocks. Our secondary aim was to identify potential drivers of this variation.
RESULTS RESULTS
Among the 26 457 peripheral blocks performed, mean (±SD) LA dose per block in ropivacaine equivalents was 125.1±51.2 mg and 1.6±0.7 for mg/kg. There was large variation across all block types, with the highest variation (measured by interdecile range) in axillary blocks (143.8 mg) and lowest in interscalene blocks (83.3 mg). In a regression analysis, dose was primarily associated with the hospital (Cohen's f=0.37) where the block was administered and block type (f=0.38), less so with age (f=0.02), weight (f=0.12), gender (f=0.05) or LA (f=0.17) used. Hospital site had strong impact on variation in LA dose (f=0.88). Variation was not significantly associated with number of blocks performed by hospital site.
CONCLUSIONS CONCLUSIONS
Large variation in dosing for regional blocks exists within and among hospitals, which is unlikely to be warranted. For many blocks, the variation of dosing is larger than the mean dose. Hospital site had strong impact on variation in LA dose and moderate impact on mean LA dose.

Identifiants

pubmed: 31494594
pii: rapm-2019-100650
doi: 10.1136/rapm-2019-100650
pii:
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Informations de copyright

© American Society of Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Competing interests: None declared.

Auteurs

Andreas H Taenzer (AH)

Anesthesiology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA andreas.h.taenzer@dartmouth.edu.

Brian D Sites (BD)

Anesthesiology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA.

Roman Kluger (R)

Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Michael Barrington (M)

Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Classifications MeSH