Investigation into the visual perceptive ability of anaesthetists during ultrasound-guided interscalene and femoral blocks conducted on soft embalmed cadavers: a randomised single-blind study.

Background: Errors may occur during regional anaesthesia whilst searching for nerves, needle tips, and test doses. Poor visual search impacts on decision making, clinical intervention, and patient safety.

Methods: We conducted a randomised single-blind study in a single university hospital.

Trainee anaesthetist diagnosis of intraneural injection-a study comparing B-mode ultrasound with the fusion of B-mode and elastography in the soft embalmed Thiel cadaver model.

Background: The incidence of intraneural injection during trainee anaesthetist ultrasound guided nerve block varies between 16% in experts and up to 35% in trainees. We hypothesized that elastography, an ultrasound-based technology that presents colour images of tissue strain, had the potential to improve trainee diagnosis of intraneural injection during UGRA, when integrated with B-Mode ultrasound onto a single image.

Methods: We recorded 40 median nerve blocks randomly allocated to 0.

The feasibility of micro-ultrasound as a tool to image peripheral nerves.

Despite widespread use of ultrasound imaging to guide needle placement, the incidence of transient and permanent nerve damage as a complication of regional anaesthesia has not changed over the last decade. In view of the controversy surrounding intraneural injection there is a need to understand the structural changes caused by subepineural and subperineural needle penetration. Clinical ultrasound machines do not provide adequate anatomical resolution, and anaesthetists have difficulty judging the precise location of the needle tip relative to the epineurium.

Physical properties and functional alignment of soft-embalmed Thiel human cadaver when used as a simulator for ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia.

Background: We evaluated the physical properties and functional alignment of the soft-embalmed Thiel cadaver as follows: by assessing tissue visibility; by measuring its acoustic, mechanical and elastic properties; by evaluating its durability in response to repeated injection; and by aligning images with humans.

Methods: In four soft-embalmed Thiel cadavers, we conducted three independent studies. We assessed the following factors: (i) soft tissue visibility in a single cadaver for 28 weeks after embalming; (ii) the displacement of tissues in response to 1 and 5 ml interscalene and femoral nerve blocks in a single cadaver; and (iii) the stiffness of nerves and perineural tissue in two cadavers.

Quantitative assessment of Thiel soft-embalmed human cadavers using shear wave elastography.

Introduction: Thiel soft-embalmed human cadavers are increasingly being used as a model to train surgeons and anesthetists because they look and feel like patients. However, there is a need to validate quantitatively the tissue properties of this model. Thus, the main objective of this study was to measure the elasticity of tissue in the Thiel soft-embalmed cadaver, using results in the literature for human volunteers for comparison.