Papers of the Week

Bupivacaine hydrochloride 0.5% (5 mg/mL) is commonly utilized for analgesia in brachial plexus blocks. We suggest that ultrasound-guided 0.25% (2.5 mg/mL) bupivacaine can be utilized for effective postoperative analgesia to reduce the effective dose. A total of 126 patients underwent ultrasound-guided brachial plexus blocks with 0.25% bupivacaine. The mean duration of analgesia was 21.95 (σ = 3.93) hours with no complications. Patients that received an infraclavicular block (22.56 σ = 4.02) had a significant increase in analgesia compared to supraclavicular blocks (21.09, σ = 3.69) (p = 0.04). These results suggest that further research is warranted for ultrasound-guided 0.25% bupivacaine in brachial plexus nerve blocks.