WALANT Special Issue
The Brazilian Perspective of WALANT in Fracture Fixation From the Hand to the Elbow
The wide-awake local anesthesia no tourniquet (WALANT) technique is currently being used by several hand surgeons. This technique enables surgeries to be performed with the patient fully awake and without a tourniquet, thus allowing the intraoperative assessment of function. The purpose of this article was to describe our WALANT techniques for metacarpal, scaphoid, distal radius, radial head, and olecranon fracture fixation with its pearls and pitfalls. The authors demonstrate their infiltration technique, detailing how to perform it using lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine and 8.4% sodium bicarbonate.Wide-Awake Local Anesthesia, No Tourniquet Surgery in the Philippines
The use of wide-awake local anesthesia, no tourniquet (WALANT) has been adapted by most hand surgeons in the Philippines. This is especially true for centers with a large volume of patients needing specialized care for the hand. The use of WALANT has enabled surgeons to do procedures on an outpatient basis, thus potentially creating cost-saving measures for patients and health care facilities. Aside from common outpatient procedures like carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, and de Quervain tenosynovitis, open reduction internal fixation of hand fractures, acute tendon repairs, tendon transfers, and reconstructions have been performed under WALANT as outpatient procedures.How to Start WALANT Practice in South Africa: “Service With a Smile if You Are Willing to Wait Awhile.”
Wide-awake local anesthesia no tourniquet (WALANT) hand surgery at 1 Military Hospital in South Africa resulted in a positive patient experience and beneficial financial outcomes in an economically constrained environment. Using the WALANT technique also effectively reduced the waiting time for elective surgery, which is considered to be synonymous with improvement in the public health sector in South Africa. Elderly patients and those medically unfit for general anesthesia successfully underwent WALANT surgery and returned to daily activities.Economic and Environmental Impacts of the Wide-Awake, Local Anesthesia, No Tourniquet (WALANT) Technique in Hand Surgery: A Review of the Literature
The United States spends more on health care than any other country in the world based on the percentage of gross domestic product. This fact is coupled with health care facilities contributing nearly one-tenth of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and with the health care industry’s waste contributions to landfills being second only to those of the food industry. In some instances, operating rooms produce the majority of total landfill waste from hospitals; therefore, patients undergoing surgical procedures can have both financial and environmental impacts.Effective Things Surgeons Can Tell Patients During Wide-Awake Local Anesthesia No Tourniquet Surgery to Decrease Complications and Improve Outcomes
Surgeons are familiar with surgical technique articles that provide step-by-step details of various surgical procedures relevant to clinical practice. This article is a communications technique article that provides step-by-step things that a surgeon can say to a wide-awake patient during the surgery to improve outcomes in clinical practice. The absence of anamnestic sedation enables memorable patient education from their surgeon to decrease the risk of postoperative complications.Current Evidence Involving WALANT Surgery
Wide-awake local anesthesia no-tourniquet (WALANT) surgery is an attractive option for hand surgeons, particularly during resource-scarce periods, as it eliminates dependence on main operating rooms or hospital-based procedures. The limited prepping or draping used for WALANT field sterility is as effective, if not more effective, than standard sterile prepping or draping. Patient anxiety surrounding WALANT surgery is similar to or less than that of general or local anesthesia with or without tourniquet.
