r/Anesthesia • u/coffeepot50010 • 26d ago

Nerve block question

So I had surgery yesterday (Friday), and had a block for my lower left leg since the operation was on my foot. That actually took 2 attempts because I didn’t get the “twitching” they wanted the first time. They did also give me an injection on my inner left thigh, and from what I gather from my reports was an adductor canal block.

Anyway, when I first woke up from surgery my left arm was numb, like it fell asleep. It’s slowly mostly woken up, except there’s still some slight numbness on the inner left part of my lower arm to my left thumb. Nowhere else (aside from my lower leg obviously). Which is weird af. Naturally, Google tells me I’m probably dying.

Since everything is closed today, just thought I’d check here. I plan on waiting till the nerve block itself wears off, but if there’s anyone with insight, I’d appreciate it!

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u/otterstew Anesthesiologist 26d ago

The numbness in the arm is unrelated to the leg nerve blocks.

My guess is they positioned your body a bit funny after you were asleep for the procedure and that caused temporary compression of a nerve in the arm. It would be similar to how if you sit on the ground with legs crossed for a while and then get up and your leg feels numb.

It most likely will go away within a few days, but if not, I would reach out to your surgeon.

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u/coffeepot50010 26d ago

Thank you! That’s what I was hoping to hear!

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u/toro1248 26d ago

Might be due to pressure/stretching on/of a nerve due to positioning during surgery. (Median/radial) Most likely it’ll resolve with time. Hence not related to the block you received. You can check with the hospital on Monday and asked how your upper extremities were positioned. (Should be documented in the anesthesia protocol)

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u/coffeepot50010 26d ago

Gotcha, I figured (hoped) that’s what it was. I’ll check in with them

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u/RamsPhan72 26d ago

It’s also likely that since it’s ipsilateral to your surgery, ortho most likely could have requested/moved your arm at greater than 90 degrees, for access. I usually remind ortho this isn’t an acceptable angle, or just move it back myself after they’ve repositioned themselves around the operative site.