COMPARISON OF TRANSTHECAL AND SUBCUTANEOUS SINGLE-INJECTION DIGITAL BLOCK TECHNIQUES IN CADAVER HANDS

A controlled, randomized single-blinded study was performed on the thu mbs and little fingers of 20 cadaver hands. The digits were randomly d ivided into 2 groups. In the transthecal group, 2 mt of 0.5% methylene blue was injected into the tendon sheath at the A1 pulley. In the sub cutaneous group, the same amount of dye was injected into the subcutan eous tissue superficial to the A1 pulley. The injections were performe d by 2 investigators. They exchanged specimens and performed dissectio ns on the injected digits without knowledge of which technique hall be en used. The distributions of dye along the digit and the color intens ity of the dye on the digital nerves were studied. There was no signif icant difference (p > .05) between results for the 2 techniques. It wa s expected that both techniques would result in similar anesthetic dis tribution in the clinical setting. In the transthecal group, intra-art icular staining of the metacarpophalangeal joint was noted in 3 little fingers and 1 thumb. This complication did not occur in the subcutane ous group. This difference was significant (p < .05).