Exit Strategy

     As I talk with ‘happily surprised’ patients post-operatively on rounds or on telephone calls, sometimes they transition to what appears to be fear and dread. It is when they go from how they feel now to what they will feel later when the peripheral nerve block catheter is pulled. Many patients go home with a disposable local anesthetic pump on the day of surgery or thereafter as the case may be, but there are some that stay inpatients for several days that should be past the inflammatory phase of their procedure and generally should not require this modality for their analgesia at this point. But how do you know? In both of these cases, you need to be prepared for how you are going to handle this transition. …

 

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