Complications of peripheral nerve catheter removal at home: case series of five ambulatory interscalene blocks

Retained Stimulating Perineural Catheters

“…Similar to the recent report by Clendenen et al, 12 the CPNBs in our series were placed using both US and stimulation. Unlike the blocks in their series, ours were placed using a posterior in-plane approach rather than an out-of-plane approach.…”

“…13,15Y18 These reports were in patients who were hospitalized, allowing them to be managed promptly by personnel trained in management of CPNBs. Clendenen et al 12 recently reported a series of 5 patients in whom ambulatory interscalene CPNB catheters were complicated by difficult catheter removal. Similar to our experience, patients in their series were difficult to manage as they were not able to easily return for evaluation and treatment.…”

“…Because the patients in these reports were inpatients, these catheters could be removed promptly by experienced personnel. Clendenen et al 12 recently reported a case of 5 ambulatory peripheral nerve catheters complicated by difficult removal. We report here a series of 4 catheters that could not be removed, although they were not knotted or broken.…”

Tip adhesions complicate infraclavicular catheter removal

“…In a previous report, we described additional complications due to shearing in five patients who received continuous nerve blocks with stimulating catheters. 3 Those reported complications suggested a dilemma in placing continuous stimulating perineural catheters on an ambulatory basis, i.e., in each case, a return trip to the hospital was required for removal. In this regard, we report tissue adhesions complicating removal of a stimulating catheter.…”

An Unusual Shearing of the Internal Coil of a Stimulating Peripheral Nerve Block Catheter

“…Catheter shearing [1], knotting [2,3], retention [4,5] and nerve entrapment of catheters [6,7] have all been described in case reports. We came across a rare complication of an Arrow stimulating nerve block catheter used as a non-stimulating catheter.…”