Regional anesthesia was performed randomly in Hamad Medical Corporation by a few anesthetists. All the nerve blocks were performed in the operating room itself and the majority of them were neuraxial. Postoperative pain control was limited to PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesia) for selected patients with major surgery.
In 2012, and to improve this practice, many of our colleagues were encouraged to do formal training, abroad, which was very successful and increased the number of nerve blocks.
In 2014, we initiate a fellowship program of regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine. This allowed us to select the most enthusiastic and active residents and specialists to make them real experts in the field of regional anesthesia and acute pain. We have started, also, our campaign of “multimodal analgesia for every patient” as well as ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) for a selected group of patients who underwent major surgery. We introduced also PCEA (Patient Controlled Epidural Analgesia) and (Patient Controlled Regional Analgesia).
In 2017, with our move to the new operating theater that includes 2 block rooms, our regional anesthesia practice has improved dramatically by a completely new organization of the patient surgical pathway that allows tailored care, faster performance, and better teaching opportunities without delay of surgery or waste of operating room time.
Nowadays, our service is an integral part of perioperative care starting with patient preparation and education, followed by preoperative surgical or postoperative analgesic blocks and ending with ward round for pain control and follow-up. Our service covers all types of surgeries and we are performing all neuraxial blocks from the simple lumbar spinal to the high thoracic epidural anesthesia and the majority of peripheral nerve block from the simple abdominal plane blocks to the complex techniques like infraclavicular or paravertebral catheter placement for continuous neural blockade.
Although our practice is based on the most evident techniques, we are assessing carefully the new techniques like serratus anterior, erector spinae plane, and the quadratus lumborum blocks
