[Intravenous regional anesthesia (author's transl)]

Experiences, with about 1500 cases of intravenous regional anesthesia in outpatient surgery of the limbs over 10 years are reported. In 1975, 158 operations out of 5960 were done using this technique. Intravenous regional anesthesia is suitable for surgery of the limbs, but time of operation should not exceed 90 min, nor should hemostasis be a major problem to consider and the course of surgery should be predictable. Contraindications for this type of anesthesia are hypertonia, lack of accessible veins, heart failure, children, as well as surgery of undefinite extent or for local sepsis. When these rules were followed, no serious complications were seen.