The Effect of Brachial Plexus Nerve Block on Distal Peripheral Nerve Conduction

Inclusion Criteria:

- Male and female military health care beneficiaries 18 years and older, capable of
providing informed consent indicating awareness of the investigational nature of the
study, in keeping with institutional policy

- Written informed consent must be obtained from each patient prior to entering the
study

- Patients must be willing to have a regional anesthetic nerve block placed prior to
their scheduled procedure

- Patients must be willing to have neurodiagnostic tests performed prior to placement
and after placement of the regional anesthesia nerve block

Exclusion Criteria:

- Refusal to have a brachial plexus nerve block placed

- Refusal to have serial nerve conduction studies performed

- Contraindication for a regional anesthesia nerve block (allergy to local anesthetic,
infection at site of injection, elevated coagulation time)

- Presence of conditions affecting the hand or arm (e.g., injury, infection) that might
preclude the performance of nerve conduction studies

- Presence of known major abnormalities of nerve conduction, e.g., absent median
sensory potential in a patient scheduled for carpal tunnel release

- Presence of conditions affecting the contralateral hand or arm (e.g., injury,
infection) that might preclude the performance of sensory and motor studies to test
block or absence of a contralateral upper extremity