Is it normal to use regional anesthesia for hand surgery?

Regional or local: Depending on the surgery, surgeon, and anesthesiologist, hand surgery may be performed under local or regional anesthesia. If local, the surgeon will inject local near the incision site. An intravenous regional anesthetic (bier block) is performed by injecting local into the arm veins after an arm tourniquet is inflated. Or, a nerve block is performed with local injected near nerves in neck or arm.

Yes: Most hand surgery is performed under local or regional anesthesia.

Surgeon dependent: The use of regional anesthesia varies from decade to decade. We are currently in an age where more and more cases are done under regional anesthesia. The advantages are that there is less anesthetic used, and the patient needs less pain medication after the operation because of the block. Talk to your surgeon and anesthesiologist about your options.