[Ultrasound in anesthesiology--ultrasound in interventional pain therapy]

Ultrasound is an emerging new imaging and guiding technique for diagnostic or therapeutic interventional pain procedures. Advantages are the real time monitoring of the targeted structures, the placement of the instruments and the visualization of local anaesthetic spread without exposing patients and personal to radiation. Pain specialists need a large anatomical knowledge and training to use the new method safely and distinctively. The increasing published data available and the personal experience of the authors suggest a potential usefulness in interventional pain therapy, but also limitations.