The Application of Regional Anaesthesia in Türkiye: National Survey Study

This study was designed to determine why anaesthesiologists working in various institutions in our country prefer current regional anaesthesia methods and to evaluate the use and prevalence of ultrasonography in these methods.

A questionnaire created on SurveyMonkey.com was sent electronically or face-to-face to anaesthesiology and reanimation physicians working in different provinces of our country, and they were asked to fill it out. The survey was intended to be administered to at least 200 volunteer anaesthesiologists. The questionnaire consisted of 34 questions, including demographic characteristics, neuraxial block and peripheral nerve block (PNB) applications, drug choices, preferences in paediatric cases, training, and safety measures.

A total of 215 anaesthesiologists participated in our questionnaire. 39.2% were working in a university hospital, and 38.2% were working in a training and research hospital. PNB training was received by 89.2% of the participants during specialty training. For analgesic purposes, the interscalene block was preferred for shoulder surgery (57.4%), the axillary block for elbow, forearm, and hand surgery (49.8%), the erector spinae plane block for thoracic surgery (33.8%), and the transverse abdominis and rectus block for open abdominal surgery (51.5%).

Regional anaesthesia is an essential part of multimodal analgesia and is used both as an anaesthetic and analgesic in routine practice. In recent years, many new techniques have been utilized as a result of advancements. However, for these to be implemented in practice, up-to-date information should be closely followed, and anaesthetists should be supported in terms of training and equipment.