Anatomical Structures and Ultrasound Guided Retrolaminar Block

Abstract

Paravertebral blocks have gained in popularity and offer the possible benefit of reduced adverse effects when compared with epidural analgesia. Nevertheless, pulmonary complications in the form of inadvertent pleural puncture are still a recognized risk. Also, the traditional paravertebral blocks are often technically difficult even with ultrasound guidance and constitute deep non-compressible area injections. Retrolaminar block (RB) is known to confer chest wall analgesia but, its mechanism has not been established.