Surgery has changed over the years since the … century, especially with the emergence of anesthesia. Nowadays, with the progress made, different techniques of anesthesia are made available; their choice is based on surgeons and anaesthesiologists’ experience. The popliteal block, which is an efficient regional anesthetic technique, is used to anesthetize structures below the knee and is mainly indicated in surgery of the foot and the ankle. However it can be combined to other blocks in order to realise other surgical procedures such as the total knee replacement. The popliteal block consists in a block of the sciatic nerve at the levl of the knee. Like other regional anesthesia, it has various advantages which are the rapid fnctional recuperation and reduction of the hospital stay, what is lookef for with the popularity of outpatient surgery. Moreover, PB not only has less side effects than general anesthesia but also provides with a long post-operative analgesia and then reduces the use of opioids.
Despite those advantages, PB is still not widely used, due to difficulties of localisation of the nerve. This type of anesthesia therefore requires a sound knowledge of neurovascular anatomy; in this case the sciatic nerve anatomy and particularly its level of division are of great importance. The sciatic nerve is known to divide at the superior angle of the popliteal fossa, where it gives two main branches: the tibial nerve and the common fibular nerve. Some studies described a significant variability of this anatomy with a division of the sciatic nerve at a higher …show more content…
Simulate the popliteal block using a dye
2. Identify the sciatic nerve and its branches
3. Describe the levels of division of the sciatic nerve
4. Observe the variations and determine their frequency
5. Establish a correlation between the levl of division and the outcome of the PB
6. Amalyse the differences between male and female, and
Despite those advantages, PB is still not widely used, due to difficulties of localisation of the nerve. This type of anesthesia therefore requires a sound knowledge of neurovascular anatomy; in this case the sciatic nerve anatomy and particularly its level of division are of great importance. The sciatic nerve is known to divide at the superior angle of the popliteal fossa, where it gives two main branches: the tibial nerve and the common fibular nerve. Some studies described a significant variability of this anatomy with a division of the sciatic nerve at a higher …show more content…
Simulate the popliteal block using a dye
2. Identify the sciatic nerve and its branches
3. Describe the levels of division of the sciatic nerve
4. Observe the variations and determine their frequency
5. Establish a correlation between the levl of division and the outcome of the PB
6. Amalyse the differences between male and female, and