Tag Archives: anatomy

Some regional anaesthesia resources

Very brief post – I was giving an informal tutorial on practical aspects of regional blocks to a group of interns today, and I promised to forward them a few of my favourite online resources.  I thought I’d share them here and tip my metaphorical hat to the organisations behind these great sites.  In no order of preference:

  • NYSORA – the New York School of Regional Anaesthesia – has a fantastic collection of articles on specific nerve blocks, guidance techniques (including ultrasound), general pointers and other links.  There very well illustrated step-by-step guides to many of the blocks are brilliant adjuncts to learning new techniques and brushing up on doing a block you haven’t used in a while.  I’ve never looked back after I adopted some of their tips and tricks.  Highly recommended.  They also sell a hard-cover book that covers lots of the material, if you prefer to read with something in your hand.
  • The US National Library of Medicine’s Visible Human Project provides access to colour 2D and 3D images of real human anatomy, and is the next best thing to having a cadaver laboratory at your fingertips.  To get the most of this data/imagery, you’ll need to use a viewer or browser of sorts.  The Ecole Polytechnique Federale du Lausanne’s Visible Human Web Server allows you to do specific slices, 3D reconstructions and more.  You’ll need to create a (free) login.
  • For quick, three-dimensional and completely interactive study of anatomy, you have to check out the BioDigital Human site.  It offers a zoomable, rotatable, layerable, disectable, labelable, x-rayable and cross-sectionable 3D anatomy model for you to explore.  I have just begun to tap the advantages and of this for personal learning and teaching; my favourite so far is dissecting off one or two neck structures to show the interscalene approach to the brachial plexus and then using the search function to switch to X-ray view highlighting the phrenic nerve.  Pure awesome.

I’ll try to keep on posting sites that I enjoy.  Please feed back any info you think worth sharing, or pass this on!