Regional Anesthesia Clinical Research

The division of Regional Anesthesia is dedicated to designing and implementing extramurally-funded clinical research, involving both human subjects as well as laboratory-based projects.  Current extramural funding exceeds $1.3-million, and 7-10 active protocols are in effect at any one time, including several multi-center randomized clinical trials.  Topics under current study include:

• Optimizing local anesthetic concentration and basal rate for continuous peripheral nerve block local anesthetic infusions
• Optimizing perineural catheter placement and analgesia with the use of ultrasound, nerve-stimulation, and a combination of the two modalities
• Investigating new ultrasound-guided approaches to perineural catheter placement and validating postoperative infusion outcome effects
• Continuous femoral nerve blocks following total knee arthroplasty and their effects on readiness-for-discharge and long-term quality-of-life
• Continuous psoas compartment nerve blocks following total hip arthroplasty and their effects on readiness-for-discharge and long-term quality-of-life

Recent Publications from UCSD Regional Anesthesia

1. Mariano ER, Ilfeld BM, Cheng GS, Nicodemus HF, Suresh S. Feasibility of ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve block catheters for pain control on pediatric medical missions in developing countries. Pediatric Anesthesia 2008 May;18:598-601
2. Ilfeld BM, Le LT, Meyer RS, Mariano ER, Vandenborne K, Duncan PW, Sessler DI, Enneking FK, Shuster JJ, Theriaque DW, Berry LF, Spadoni EH, Gearen PF.  Ambulatory continuous femoral nerve blocks decrease time to discharge-readiness following tricompartment total knee arthroplasty: a dual-center, randomized, triple-masked, placebo-controlled study. Anesthesiology 2008;108(4):703-13.
3. Ilfeld BM, Yaksh TL, Neal JM. Mandating two-year regional anesthesia fellowships: fanning the academic flame or extinguishing it? Regional Anesthesia Pain Medicine 2007;32(4):275-9.
4. Mariano ER, Ilfeld BM, Neal JM. "Going fishing"--the practice of reporting secondary outcomes as separate studies. Regional Anesthesia Pain Medicine 2007;32(3):183-5.
5. Ilfeld BM, Mariano ER, Neal JM. Conflicting results in clinical research: is the proof in the P value, the study design, or the pudding? Regional Anesthesia Pain Medicine 2007;32(3):179-82.
6. Jamieson BD, Mariano ER. Thoracic and lumbar paravertebral blocks for outpatient lithotripsy. Journal of Clinical Anesthesia 2007;19(2):149-51.
7. Ilfeld BM, Mariano ER, Williams BA, Woodard JN, Macario A. Hospitalization costs of total knee arthroplasty with a continuous femoral nerve block provided only in the hospital versus on an ambulatory basis:  a retrospective, case-control, cost-minimization analysis. Regional Anesthesia Pain Medicine 2007;32(1):46-54.
8. Sandhu NS, Manne JS, Medabalmi PK, Capan LM. Sonographically guided infraclavicular brachial plexus block in adults: a retrospective analysis of 1146 cases. Journal of Ultrasound Medicine 2006;25(12):1555-61.