Peripheral Nerve Block

Fifty years ago surgeons often performed various operations in conduction anesthesia or local anesthesia in the hope of circumventing pulmonary complications. The prepa- ration for the operation was the task of an assistant who had to know and carry out the diverse local anesthetic procedures and who was responsible for their effective- ness. In this way a large number of physicians learned to carry out nerve blocks, which they also applied more and more outside their operative duties. The introduction of modern general anesthesia led almost to the disappearance of the special techniques of nerve blocking at the former 'classic' places of their teaching. Therefore it is a great merit of my former associate F. L. Jenkner to recall the art of nerve blocking, be it for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. He presents the many possibilities as an addition to the therapeutic armamentarium and explains their indi- cations, bases, and techniques. I do not think that one needs to be a specialist to carry out these useful techniques; but one has to have an understanding of certain topographic-anatomic situations, and one needs to know the rules of the procedure to obviate the risks that are always inherent in any disruption of the integrity of the integument of the human body. Thus by presenting all the mentioned aspects a renaissance of good though old practices may be initiated in the light of new achievements.