Patient satisfaction following wide awake local anaesthetic no tourniquet hand surgery

BACKGROUND: Wide awake local anaesthetic no tourniquet (WALANT) hand surgery is a rapidly growing technique for hand surgery whereby a lignocaine/adrenaline/bicarbonate mixture is injected into the hand or fingers where the procedure is to be carried outMETHODS: This was a retrospective study with prospective recall analysing satisfaction of patients who underwent WALANT hand surgery at our academic hospital in the first year of its inception. Data collection included a questionnaire to analyse demographics, comparison to dental procedures, subjective and objective experience of the procedure, overall experience, expectations, pain and surgical outcomeRESULTS: We included 80 procedures in 67 patients; 87% would prefer WALANT in the future, and 87% would recommend WALANT to friends or family. For 79% of patients (who had dental procedures before), the pain was less or the same as a dental procedure, and 70% of patients said the experience was better than expected. Average pain scores were 3.89/10 during local anaesthetic injection, 1.25/10 during the procedure and 5.20/10 postoperatively; with postoperative pain starting at an average of nine hours. Eighty-five per cent of conditions were cured at follow-up and no cases of digital ischaemia or infection were notedCONCLUSION: Our study suggests WALANT hand surgery is a safe, effective and satisfactory method of performing hand surgery in the South African contextLevel of evidence: Level 4

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	de Buys,Michael, Tsama,Mluleki, Aden,Abdirashid A
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Medpharm Publications 2022
Online Access:	http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1681-150X2022000100008
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