Block It Like It’s Hot: Regional Anesthesia, Pain Medicine & POCUS

Close your eyes and repeat after me: "Less Pharma, More Karma"... In this fascinating interview, Dr. Jeni Noerenberg -- anesthesiologist AND integrative medicine physician -- takes a couple of noobs like Amit and Jeff and explains how techniques like noetic medicine, acupuncture, guided imagery, aromatherapy, nutrition, clinical hypnosis (and more!) are being used in the perioperative space to reduce anxiety, decrease anesthetic a...

More Oslo interviews? You got it. This time we're chatting with amazing Amy Pearson about her leadership in promoting anesthesia safety through the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, and how botox creates opportunities for enhanced patient connection! We also somehow get suckered into a pro-con on airway blocks vs. topicalization with the ever impressive (and impeccably styled) Kariem El-Boghdadly, and well, we'll let you decide...

We're back to Oslo for the ESRA Block Box experience where we interviewed two fascinating and impressive people: Guy Weinberg from Chicago regales us with how a failed experiment led to an incredible antidote, and leaves us with a word of warning about a commonly-used local anesthetic; and Barbara Breebaart from Antwerp, explains how we have just SIX seconds to win the confidence of our patients with our body language, and other am...

The ah-maaazing interviews continue in the Block Box in Orlando -- this time Amit and Jeff are chatting with two Canadians! Anahi Perlas from Toronto tells us about how she first started to think about gastric ultrasound and the challenges involved in creating a new diagnostic test. And then Jon Bailey from Halifax shares his experiences in researching the feasibility of nerve blocks in outer space! 

Join us each month for another ...

Got pain that last for a looooong time? YOU, my friend, need a continuous catheter! Join Amit and Jeff as they discuss all things catheter-related: What is the best way to place them? How do keep them from falling out? What are the differences in catheter and pump designs? Is a programmed intermittent bolus enough? Or do we need a background rate too? What is a 'green gizmo'? Why does Jeff keep attempting accents? So many questions...

In this toe-tally fascinating episode, Amit and Jeff talk ankle blocks, digital blocks, Mayo blocks, popliteal sciatic blocks, and much more. Who knew there were so many ways to block the five little piggies??!  Join us every episode for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!

Links from the episo...

Greetings from Norway!! 🇳🇴 Amit and Jeff once again return to the GE Healthcare Block Box, this time at the ESRA25 meeting in Oslo! In this episode, we chat with Athmaja Thottungal about her motivation behind a career change, the value of healthcare coaches for preventative health, and some practical tips to chill out and engage in a "digital detox". Following that, we talk with John McDonnell and hear his thoughts on blocks new ...

Two amazing interviewees in one deee-licious episode! The uber-impressive Ki Jinn Chin from the University of Toronto shares his ASRA "origin story", his thoughts on how regional anesthesia really does incorporate elements of artistry, creativity and improvisation, how long a YouTube video SHOULD be, and what he's doing with spinals these days. Following that, the always inspiring and engaging Amanda Kumar joins us from Duke Univer...

In this fascinating episode, Amit and Jeff interview Dr. Jordana Garbati, an “emoji-ologist” 😎 who has researched and lectured internationally about the use of emoji as language. For something we use every day, we sure had a lot of questions: are we using these correctly? Are there ways to be misinterpreted? Is it ok to emoji your boss? What emoji are useful in communicating with colleagues or patients? If you’ve ever wondered how...

Our two hosts sit down for a stimulating (yes, intended) conversation with Kwesi Kwofie from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, who gets down and dirty about needle nerve contact and nerve injury. Where exactly should we put the needle when performing a supraclavicular brachial plexus block? Or...is the supraclav dead?!! Why is periplexus preferred over intraplexus when doing interscalene brachial plexus blocks? Oh, and Kwesi...

Amit and Jeff continue their fascinating dive into the mind and life of Admir Hadzic, author, innovator, founder of NYSORA, brewer of fine beer, bassist and sports car nut. In this episode we discuss standardization in regional anesthesia, the future of textbooks in medicine, how sedated DO patients really want to be for nerve blocks, what it's like to drive a Ferrari to your next gig, and (because we don't shy away from cont-rah-v...

Amit and Jeff are still (!) sweating it out in the block box, and have the good fortune to be joined by three wonderful guests: Stuart Grant from the University of North Carolina, Steve Coppens from the Catholic University of Leuven, and Gary Schwartz from Maimonides Medical Center in NYC. We cover such topics as peripheral nerve stimulation for looooong term pain control, the value of the ESP (and where it might just be hype--I'm ...

He's the founder of NYSORA, a rock-blues bassist, and a lover of fine beer and finer automobiles. We had a ton of fun chatting with Admir Hadzic about the his origin story, how he has been able to reinvent himself and his focus, and how to NOT live your life in "thirds". Over three decades, Admir has built a global educational brand while running a highly efficient regional anesthesia service in New York and now Belgium, and he sha...

Our star-studded guest list continues live from the GE Healthcare Block Box at ASRA Spring 25! In this episode we interview Ed Mariano, Eleni Moka, and Michael Bullock, and get their answers to such questions as: What platforms work best for social media? How do we bring RA education to under-resourced parts of the globe? What is the mechanism of tourniquet hypertension and what's a clever trick to obviate that? Why is Jeff so $&am...

Wine, flamingos, and a glass box…this is NOT your typical BILIH episode...Amit and Jeff join you from the ASRA Spring Annual Meeting 2025 in Orlando, Florida, where they recorded live interviews with over a dozen influential thinkers in regional anesthesiology. Join us as we chat and laugh with James Kim, Sandy Kopp and Nadia Hernandez over discussions of POCUS, probe covers, catheters, the NEW anticoagulation guidelines, and much ...

Clear!!! In the exciting conclusion to our two-parter on blocks in emergency medicine, things get real as the co-hosts debate Arun and Andrew over the ideal block for hip fracture, a slick way to reduce a shoulder dislocation, cheeky femoral blocks, and the role of fascial plane blocks in the ED. 

Links:

The sponsor of this episode is GE Healthcare Venue Family of Ultrasound Machines: https://tinyurl.com/gehealthcarevenue

Art...

Amit and Jeff are joined by Dr. Robbie Erskine from Daaaarrby, UK, sharing his immense wealth of knowledge and experience (and which Bond film is his fave) on spinal anesthesia technique and how to make ambulatory spinals work for everyone! 

Link to the BJA Education article on neuraxial anesthesia in patients with challenging anatomy: https://www.bjaed.org/article/S2058-5349(23)00154-3/fulltext

Link to Robbie's review article...

Amit and Jeff are joined by two Emergency Medicine experts (and self-described Blockheads!) with a passion for keeping injured patients comfortable. Drs. Arun Nagdev and Andrew Goldsmith talk to us about the role of regional anesthesia in the ER, what blocks are high-impact, what exactly is meant by a "tube and lube rotation" for trainees, and more! 

Link to the JAMA paper on regional anesthesia in the ER and complications: https...

In part 2, Amit and Jeff tackle probe positioning, needle trajectory and something called Pawa's Pleural Groan...Why is the PVB poised to have a renaissance? Should we block one level? Every level? What's the risk of pneumothorax and should this block be done in anti coagulated patients? (spoiler: 2 out of 2 hosts say YES!) Join us for all this and more as we round out this in-depth discussion into one of our FAVE block techniques....