[Ultrasound-Guided Regional Anaesthesia in Obesity]

Obesity is associated with a number of anaesthesia-relevant risks. Regional anaesthesia procedures offer a number of advantages, but they also pose an anaesthetic challenge. For example, the identification of superficial landmarks according to the degree of obesity is difficult to impossible, which reduces the success rate compared to normal weight patients. The use of ultrasound (US) technology with the ability to visualize the target structures may be helpful in performing neuraxial and peripheral blockades. However, a lot of experience and training is required because the ultrasound imaging of very low-lying nerves in obese patients is limited due to the physical limitations of US technology.