Efficacy of Ultrasound-Guided Local Anesthetic Injection Into or Around the Sciatic Nerve for Lower Limb Anesthesia

This study was designed to assess whether the injection of local anesthetic into the nerve (intraneural), as opposed to around it (perineural), requires a shorter time to develop surgical anesthesia of the lower leg. The investigators will compare the two types of injection using the same drug, so as to determine if there is an actual difference onset time. They will also examine the overall success rate of either kind of sciatic nerve blocks as the sole anesthetic for non-emergent orthopedic surgery. The safety of these procedures will be examined by in-hospital and phone-call follow-up contacts.

This will be a randomized, controlled, patient- and observer-blinded trial assessing block characteristics after intra- or perineural injection of ropivacaine for subgluteal sciatic nerve blocks performed for elective surgery of the lower limb.