depomedrol in peripheral nerve blocks

[USAnesthesiaDoc]

Is anyone out there routinely adding depomedrol to single shot peripheral nerve blocks (interscalene, femoral, etc)? If so, what have your experiences been?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Planktonmd]

Is anyone out there routinely adding depomedrol to single shot peripheral nerve blocks (interscalene, femoral, etc)? If so, what have your experiences been?

May I ask you why you would want to do something like that?

 

[Noyac]

I don't think the data supports it.

 

[dhb]

I don't think the data supports it.

and it's quite expensive init?

 

[USAnesthesiaDoc]

Sure. There is some anecdotal evidence floating around that suggests that adding depomedrol prolongs the duration of a single shot injection block from 18 hours (marcaine + epi) to 24-36 hours. If you look on Case Western Reserve's anesthesia page, they mention they routinely do this for femoral and interscalene nerve blocks. Just wondering if anyone else had any experience with this. Thanks.

 

[USAnesthesiaDoc]

As far as data, I don't think there is any. I've searched for articles about this and haven't found anything. So I don't think this is anything that has been formally studied yet.

 

[dr. mccoy]

Steroids are used mostly with nerve blocks done for chronic pain conditions. I do not think they would or should be used for routine regional anesthesia for surgical procedures. Also, be aware to avoid the routine use of other steroids such as decadron in pts who are diabetic.