Evaluation of supraclavicular brachial plexus block in upper extremity surgery.

The supraclavicular brachial plexus blockade performed by palpation of the first rib as the primary landmark has been done in 60 patients in the past two years. Forty of the patients had undergone orthopedic surgery and 20 patients had soft tissue operations. Effective analgesia was achieved in 57 cases. Duration of the operations ranged from 15 to 490 min with a mean time of 130.6 min. The pain relief was long lasting that only 23 patients required additional analgesia in the post-operative period. The mean interval between completion of the operation and analgesia requirement was 11.3 h. Only 9 out of these 23 patients needed more than one doses. No complication pertaining to the technique was encountered.