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

Jeff Gadsden & Amit Pawa
  • 4.9 (29)
  • MEDICINE
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Your hosts Amit ”I Got The” Pawa and Jeff “Tha Notorious JCG” Gadsden discuss current issues in regional anesthesia, ultrasound-guided nerve blocks, pain medicine and POCUS, while dropping some tips on how to make your regional anesthesia workflow a blocker’s delight. Each episode dives into clinical pearls, emerging research, and practical POCUS tips (along with a lot of banter and dad jokes). Ideal for anesthesiologists, pain physicians, CRNAs, and trainees—subscribe and level up your perioperative or ICU practice.

  1. JAN 6

    S4 E1: "Block Box 10: Our convo with Alan Macfarlane and Nuala Lucas!"

    New Season Unlocked! Happy New Year and welcome to our 4th season...in this episode, we're back in the Block Box chatting with none other than Alan Macfarlane from Glasgow, who gives us some amazing Scottish jokes AND a sneak peek into the NAP8 Project that he's leading for the Royal College of Anaesthetists on complications related to regional anesthesia. It promises to be a massive effort and we can't wait to see the results! We also have the pleasure of chatting with Nuala Lucas about her passion for obstetric anesthesiology, and discuss the role of blocks in OB anesthesia, the risk that we're becoming de-skilled in epidural analgesia, the rationale for dural-puncture epidurals, and more!   Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!

    51 min

  2. 12/23/2025

    S3 E21: "Our Xmas Special Episode: BILIH listener questions!"

    Ho ho hold the phone! It's time for our Holiday Special Episode and in this, our third season, we go to the BILIH voicemail inbox and see what's been on YOUR mind! In this episode we'll do our best to answer listener questions about continuous spinals, regional research, rebound pain, needle trajectory, AI, education, chronic pain, patient management, equipment, and more! So grab an eggnog and a plate of gingerbread, you won't want to miss this one... Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!    Links: 🔗 The Failed Block Classification Paper by Vasyl Katerenchuk: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39317587/   🔗 The genicular paper by Milly Rambhia and Andy Chen: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34261807/   🔗 Video on mixing locals (the final word on the topic, you really don't have to watch anything else...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka2SQxiCgGo

    1h 29m

  3. 12/02/2025

    S3 E20: "Needles, Nirvana, and Nausea Control: The Integrative Anesthesia Episode with Dr. Jeni Noerenberg!"

    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 and opioid requirement, reduce nausea and pain, and improve other important patient outcomes. We learned a TON and Jeni left us inspired to learn more. Oh, and If you don't hear from us for a while, it just means we're not back from our shamanic journey yet.    Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!    Links: 🔗 The Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona https://awcim.arizona.edu/public_site_2024/home.html

    1h 3m

  4. 11/18/2025

    S3 E19: "Block Box 9: Our convo with Amy Pearson and Kariem El-Boghdadly!"

    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 what the outcome is... Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!    Links: 🔗 The APSF social media page administered by Dr. Pearson:  https://www.apsf.org/social-media/   🔗 Video showing how to completely anesthetize the airway with a small amount of lidocaine in 5 minutes. https://youtu.be/1yaD2APv14Y?si=vQSVBFjpbKZm7JFv   🔗 Article on fatal LAST event in a volunteer for bronchoscopy https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9612458/

    40 min

  5. 11/04/2025

    S3 E18: "Block Box 8: Our convo with Guy Weinberg & Barbara Breebaart!"

    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 amazing tips for putting patients at ease. Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!    Links: 🔗 The article Guy cites about new data on LAST and the danger of lidocaine: https://www.bjanaesthesia.org/article/S0007-0912(25)00493-3/fulltext   🔗 Elvira Lang & Eleanor Laser book on patient rapport: https://www.amazon.com/Patient-Sedation-Without-Medication-Technologists/dp/1461037603

    48 min

  6. 10/21/2025

    S3 E17: "Block Box 7: Our convo with Anahi Perlas & Jon Bailey!"

    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 sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!

    49 min

  7. 10/07/2025

    S3 E16: "Can't stop, won't stop (infusing local): The Catheter Chronicles"

    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--and SO MANY answers! Stay tuned for all this and much more as we pump it up in this fun and enlightening episode.  Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!    Links:   🔗 Article on force required to remove catheters with and without tunneling: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24447324/   🔗 Article on best method for securing catheters to skin in volunteers: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33406276/   🔗 Article on short vs. long axis placement of popliteal catheters: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27440634/   🔗 Article on the first documented continuous catheter using a cork, needle and tape: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20983091/

    1h 21m

  8. 09/30/2025

    S3 E15: "Plenty of sole, and lots of kick: Blocks for foot and ankle surgery"

    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 episode: 🔗 Robards et al article about needing an intra-sheath needle tip position to elicit a motor response for popliteal sciatic nerve block: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19608846/   🔗 Lopez article about the sensory distribution of the saphenous nerve: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22854395/   🔗 Wahal/Bullock article on the Femoral Arterial Block (FAB): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33431616/   🔗 Mythbusters video on the use of epinephrine in digital blocks: https://youtu.be/Lh8dp8csNHU?si=mczxCGDWoEGuUmoQ

    1h 25m
See All (46)

4.9
out of 5
29 Ratings

About

Your hosts Amit ”I Got The” Pawa and Jeff “Tha Notorious JCG” Gadsden discuss current issues in regional anesthesia, ultrasound-guided nerve blocks, pain medicine and POCUS, while dropping some tips on how to make your regional anesthesia workflow a blocker’s delight. Each episode dives into clinical pearls, emerging research, and practical POCUS tips (along with a lot of banter and dad jokes). Ideal for anesthesiologists, pain physicians, CRNAs, and trainees—subscribe and level up your perioperative or ICU practice.

Information

You Might Also Like