Safety of supplementing axillary brachial plexus blocks.

The incidence of failed local anesthetic axillary blockade varies but can be as high as 20-30%. The authors propose to evaluate the safety of supplementing an axillary block with mepivacaine 30 min after the initial injection. An axillary blockade was performed on 10 healthy patients scheduled for forearm or hand surgery using a new catheter technique.