Background This study was aimed at exploring the clinical effect of a modified dorsal peroneal nerve block in foot operation under the ankle plane.
Methods The study was observational study, thirty patients ( n =30) were observed with single-center and non-randomized. The patients were treated with an ankle nerve block (including the posterior tibial nerve, superficial peroneal nerve, saphenous nerve, and sural nerve block in the plane of the ankle) and a deep peroneal nerve block (7.5 mg/ml). The primary outcomes were intraoperative visual analogue scale score (0-10 points), numeric rating scale score (0-10 points), and Neuropen score (0-2 points). The secondary outcomes were postoperative pain visual analogue scale and numeric rating scale scores (0-10). Histograms and normal probability QQ plots were used to test the distribution of normality.
Results We analyzed the data of 30 patients. It was found that after 20 min of ankle block and deep peroneal nerve block, 23 patients achieved a perfect block effect (visual analogue scale and Neuropen scores = 0), and the operation was performed smoothly. Six patients experienced slight pain (visual analogue scale score: ≤ 3, Neuropen score = 1). An intravenous sedative drip (dexmedetomidine 4 µg/ml, 1 µg/kg dexmedetomidine hydrochloride injection 2 ml:0.2 g; Jiangsu Nhwa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd . , China) was used. The block failed in one patient, and the operation was performed under general anesthesia with a laryngeal mask in this patient.
Conclusions The modified deep peroneal nerve block combined with an ankle nerve block can meet the anesthesia needs for foot surgery under the ankle plane. However, due to the limited number of patients evaluated, it is difficult to accurately predict the effect and a large degree of uncertainty exists regarding these findings. Trial registration This study had been registered at http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx with No. ChiCTR2000037880 on Sep 3, 2020.It was a retrospectively registered.