A complete regional anesthesia technique for cardiac pacemaker insertion

Abstract

Sixteen consecutive adult patients scheduled for permanent transvenous cardiac pacemaker insertion received as their total anesthetic the combination of a cervical plexus block and blocks of the second, third, and fourth intercostal nerves using a combination of 1% mepivacaine and 0.2% tetracaine with epinephrine, 1:200,000. This technique consistently provided complete surgical anesthesia of the third cervical (C3) through the fourth thoracic (T4) dermatomes, without anesthesia of the brachial plexus. Anesthesia was adequate for the surgical procedure without the need for supplemental analgesia or anesthesia in all cases. Because fluoroscopy was used routinely for the surgical procedure, it was possible to document that there were no instances of diaphragmatic paralysis or pneumothorax. In contrast to other reports, this technique provides surgical anesthesia that is adequate for all of the approaches used for transvenous pacemaker implantation, except for placement of a battery in an abdominal pouch. There were no serious complications and/or side effects in any of the patients studied.