Safer anesthesia comes from battlefield

CHESAPEAKE,Va. - You can see the toll rheumatoid arthritis has taken on Gail Ozmon just by looking at her crippled hands. Doctors have replaced nearly every one of Ozmon's joints.

Ozmon says she's had both hips, both knees and both ankle joints replaced.

In the past, the only option to control pain after surgery was narcotics like morphine, which often makes patients nauseous, itchy and unable to urinate.

However, when Ozmon had her second ankle surgery in June, her anesthesiologist tried something new. 

"Kind of like novocaine, when a dentist would inject your mouth, but your injecting into the peripheral nerves in the body and numbing certain areas of the body,"said Dr. Dean Giacobbe.

Using a pump and a plastic tube, Dr. Giacobbe says he can provide pain relief for up to five days after surgery.

"We just dial in a rate of how much we want to go in per hour," added Dr. Giacobbe.

Soldiers were among the first to use this technique in Iraq. Dr Giacobbe, a former Navy doctor says for the first time in this war, many soldiers survived attacks, but ended up with devastating limb injuries.

They'd get morphine in Iraq then be put on long flights to Germany where they'd arrive in excruciating pain. Army generals asked doctors to solve the problem and they came up with what's called "peripheral nerve block."

"Now several of us have gotten out and our group here at Chesapeake Medical Center is all ex-Navy Anesthesiologists and we've brought that technology here," said Dr. Giacobbe.

Ozmon says she had none of the side effects she suffered with morphine and recovered faster.  "I was even able to wiggle my toes and not feel any pain," said Ozmon.

Now, she is actually looking forward to having her hands done, and holding her grandchildren.

There are not many published studies on the peripheral pain block technique but the risks appear to be that of infection and nerve damage. Doctors say the risk is actually going down with the use of ultrasound machines, so they can see exactly where they're injecting the tubing.