Regional anesthesia and analgesia.

Local and regional anesthetic techniques have a significant but limited place in the practice of infant pain control. In certain clinical circumstances, regional anesthetic techniques presumably afford many of the same advantages for the pediatric patient as in the adult patient. However, there are few controlled clinical trials on the advantages and adverse effects compared with conventional analgesic strategies. This article discusses the clinical application, effectiveness, safety, and outcomes of the available local and regional anesthetic techniques for control of postoperative and procedure-related pain in neonates and infants.