Block It Like It’s Hot: Regional Anesthesia, Pain Medicine & POCUS

Our two hosts sit down for a stimulating (yes, intended) conversation with Kwesi Kwofie from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, who gets down and dirty about needle nerve contact and nerve injury. Where exactly should we put the needle when performing a supraclavicular brachial plexus block? Or...is the supraclav dead?!! Why is periplexus preferred over intraplexus when doing interscalene brachial plexus blocks? Oh, and Kwesi...

Amit and Jeff continue their fascinating dive into the mind and life of Admir Hadzic, author, innovator, founder of NYSORA, brewer of fine beer, bassist and sports car nut. In this episode we discuss standardization in regional anesthesia, the future of textbooks in medicine, how sedated DO patients really want to be for nerve blocks, what it's like to drive a Ferrari to your next gig, and (because we don't shy away from cont-rah-v...

Amit and Jeff are still (!) sweating it out in the block box, and have the good fortune to be joined by three wonderful guests: Stuart Grant from the University of North Carolina, Steve Coppens from the Catholic University of Leuven, and Gary Schwartz from Maimonides Medical Center in NYC. We cover such topics as peripheral nerve stimulation for looooong term pain control, the value of the ESP (and where it might just be hype--I'm ...

He's the founder of NYSORA, a rock-blues bassist, and a lover of fine beer and finer automobiles. We had a ton of fun chatting with Admir Hadzic about the his origin story, how he has been able to reinvent himself and his focus, and how to NOT live your life in "thirds". Over three decades, Admir has built a global educational brand while running a highly efficient regional anesthesia service in New York and now Belgium, and he sha...

Our star-studded guest list continues live from the GE Healthcare Block Box at ASRA Spring 25! In this episode we interview Ed Mariano, Eleni Moka, and Michael Bullock, and get their answers to such questions as: What platforms work best for social media? How do we bring RA education to under-resourced parts of the globe? What is the mechanism of tourniquet hypertension and what's a clever trick to obviate that? Why is Jeff so $&am...

Wine, flamingos, and a glass box…this is NOT your typical BILIH episode...Amit and Jeff join you from the ASRA Spring Annual Meeting 2025 in Orlando, Florida, where they recorded live interviews with over a dozen influential thinkers in regional anesthesiology. Join us as we chat and laugh with James Kim, Sandy Kopp and Nadia Hernandez over discussions of POCUS, probe covers, catheters, the NEW anticoagulation guidelines, and much ...

Clear!!! In the exciting conclusion to our two-parter on blocks in emergency medicine, things get real as the co-hosts debate Arun and Andrew over the ideal block for hip fracture, a slick way to reduce a shoulder dislocation, cheeky femoral blocks, and the role of fascial plane blocks in the ED. 

Links:

The sponsor of this episode is GE Healthcare Venue Family of Ultrasound Machines: https://tinyurl.com/gehealthcarevenue

Art...

Amit and Jeff are joined by Dr. Robbie Erskine from Daaaarrby, UK, sharing his immense wealth of knowledge and experience (and which Bond film is his fave) on spinal anesthesia technique and how to make ambulatory spinals work for everyone! 

Link to the BJA Education article on neuraxial anesthesia in patients with challenging anatomy: https://www.bjaed.org/article/S2058-5349(23)00154-3/fulltext

Link to Robbie's review article...

Amit and Jeff are joined by two Emergency Medicine experts (and self-described Blockheads!) with a passion for keeping injured patients comfortable. Drs. Arun Nagdev and Andrew Goldsmith talk to us about the role of regional anesthesia in the ER, what blocks are high-impact, what exactly is meant by a "tube and lube rotation" for trainees, and more! 

Link to the JAMA paper on regional anesthesia in the ER and complications: https...

In part 2, Amit and Jeff tackle probe positioning, needle trajectory and something called Pawa's Pleural Groan...Why is the PVB poised to have a renaissance? Should we block one level? Every level? What's the risk of pneumothorax and should this block be done in anti coagulated patients? (spoiler: 2 out of 2 hosts say YES!) Join us for all this and more as we round out this in-depth discussion into one of our FAVE block techniques....

In this episode, Amit and Jeff hold court while discussing the crown jewel of regional techniques, the paravertebral block. Join us for some controversies, debates and jokes while we give paravertebral anatomy and block technique the royal treatment.

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perio...

Grab an eggnog & a mince pie or two and join Amit and Jeff for a frosty and festive finale to Season 2, featuring answers to some listener questions and a joyful round of dad jokes!

Links to things discussed:

University of Florida study on intercostobrachial nerve block: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35308761/

Good paper explaining how regional anesthesia does NOT block ischemic pain: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/241...

In this engaging conclusion of our two-parter, we continue to share some laughs with the amazing Tanya Selak while discussing the value of SoMe collaboration, how to set boundaries when things get rough, and why she's NOT quitting Twitter (X) quite yet. In the meantime, Amit quotes Vanilla Ice, while Tanya seeks redemption as she gets another shot at the Dad-joke title.

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anes...

Amit and Jeff welcome special guest Tanya Selak from Wooleng....Woolloongo....from Australia. Tanya shares her ideas on the role of regional anesthesia in contemporary practice, how and who we should be training procedural skills in anesthesia, and possibly wins the joke-off with the lads. 

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound g...

In the exciting conclusion of our abdominal wall block series, Amit and Jeff dive into QL blocks (and more!)...what's the deal with QL 1, 2 & 3? Does it REALLY get the whole abdomen? What is a Tequila block and how can I get one cuz it sounds delicious!? Join us for all this and a heapin' helping of the usual dad jokes...

Link to Jeff's QL video:

https://youtu.be/vrQ613SoQvI?si=tFzNdjNULvXbFkd_

Link to Amit's ESP video:

htt...

Is it advantageous to mix local anesthetics? Should we perform blocks in asleep patients? Why is the 'tucked vs untucked' scrub debate so fierce? 🤔 Join Amit and Jeff as they dive into these controversial issues and more!

Things we referenced during this episode:

Link to interscalene mixing study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21156983/

Link to interscalene sequence study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22798531/

Link to Jeff...

Join Amit and Jeff for a continuing discussion on belly blocks--we take a deep dive on external oblique intercostal block, find out WHY rectus sheath block is just so darn easy and fun to do, and entertain offers of tummy massages...

Link to External Oblique Intercostal Block video:

https://youtu.be/EftwBnMVHOI?si=RC_ARcjCq0fuIGA1

Link to rectus sheath block videos:

https://youtu.be/8jZG-w94srQ?si=wKUZbwn0zlztNSdl

https://youtu...

Amit & Jeff are joined by special guest star Jonny Wilkinson from Northampton as we discuss the role of nerve blocks in the intensive care unit: Which blocks? Who does them? Which patients benefit? How do we best teach these? Laughs were had, sound effects were shared, but no possums were injured in the making of this episode.

The Northampton Critical Care site: https://criticalcarenorthampton.com/

Join us each month for an...