Ultrasound guidance versus electrical stimulation for femoral perineural catheter insertion

Received May 21, 2009, from the Departments ofAnesthesiology (E.R.M., V.J.L., N.S.S., R.H.B., M.L.B.,R.C.M., B.M.I.) and Orthopedic Surgery (R.A., S.T.B.,R.S.M.), University of California, San Diego, CaliforniaUSA. Revision requested June 1, 2009. Revisedmanuscript accepted for publication July 2, 2009.We thank the operating and recovery roomstaff at University of California San Diego HillcrestHospital (San Diego, CA) and Thornton Hospital (LaJolla, CA) for assistance. The results of this studywere presented in part at the 2009 InternationalAnesthesia Research Society Annual Meeting; March14–17, 2009; San Diego, California. Funding for thisproject was provided by National Institutes of Healthgrant GM077026 (principal investigator, Dr Ilfeld)from the National Institute of General MedicalSciences and the Department of Anesthesiology,University of California, San Diego Medical Center. DrsMariano, Loland, and Ilfeld and Ms Maldonado havereceived funding for other research investigationsfrom Arrow International and Stryker Instruments,and Drs Mariano and Loland conduct nerve blockworkshops for Stryker Instruments. These compa-nies had no input into any aspect of this study.Address correspondence to Edward R. Mariano,MD, MAS, Department of Anesthesiology, Universityof California, San Diego Medical Center, 200 WArbor Dr, San Diego, CA 92103-8770 USA.E-mail: ermariano@ucsd.edu