Table 1.
Demographic data shown as n (%) unless otherwise specified.
| General anesthesia group n=67 | Nerve block group n=99 | Bier block/ local group n=63 | P-value* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (yrs; mean±SD) | 46±17 | 47±17 | 50±15 | 0.2119 |
| Gender (male) | 40 (60%) | 58 (59%) | 29 (46%) | 0.2074 |
| ASA-PS [median (IQR)] | 2 (1) | 2 (1) | 2 (1) | 0.8523 |
| Surgical suration [min; median (IQR)] | 70 (67) | 70 (65) | 19 (11) | <0.001† |
| Surgical site | ||||
| Hand | 40(60%) | 54(55%) | 60(95%) | <0.0001 |
| Wrist | 14(21%) | 24(24%) | 3(5%) | |
| Forearm | 5(7%) | 14(14%) | --- | |
| Elbow | 6(9%) | 6(6%) | --- | |
| Humerus | --- | 1(1%) | --- | |
| Shoulder | 2(3%) | --- | --- | |
The three study groups included patients receiving general anesthesia, those receiving a nerve block performed preoperatively, and those receiving local anesthetic, either Bier block or local anesthetic, administered in the operating room (OR).
ASA-PS=American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status.
P-value is based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) for continuous normally-distributed variables, one-way ANOVA, on the ranks of the observations, with Tukey-Kramer correction for multiple comparisons for continuous non-parametric data, and Pearson’s χ2 test for categorical variables.
Comparing Bier/local to nerve block and Bier/local to general. No difference was found between general and nerve block (P=0.9594).