Vazirani-Akinosi Nerve Block Technique: An Asset of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon

Vazirani-Akinosi nerve block technique is an established and a reliable technique to achieve anaesthesia in mandible with high success rate and is useful in cases where Halstead's technique fails to provide desired anaesthetic effect.

A total of 140 ASA-I or ASA-II patients, both genders, between 16 and 45 years who required extraction of mandibular tooth were divided into two groups. Group A received nerve block through Halstead technique, while Group B received nerve block through Vazirani-Akinosi technique with 2% lignocaine containing 1:200,000 adrenaline. We evaluated the subjective and objective onset of anaesthesia, outcome of the injection, outcome of the aspiration and patient satisfaction.

In Group A, the altered sensation was experienced at 68.70 s, while in Group B it was 92.55 s and the difference was statistically highly significant (p < 0.001) between the two groups. The mean onset of anaesthesia (measured with Electric pulp tester) in Group A was 78.36 s, while for Group B it was 104.24 s and this difference was statistically highly significant (p < 0.001). Positive aspiration was seen in 11 (15.71%) patients in Group A and in 2 (2.86%) patients in Group B. The success rate for Group A was 81.42% and for Group B it was 97.14%.

Vazirani-Akinosi technique provides desirable surgical anaesthesia with relatively high success rate and lower incidence of positive aspiration and can be considered as a boon for oral and maxillofacial surgeons.