[Regional anaesthesia in obese patients: what's different?].

Basically regional anaesthesia offers a lot of advantages compared with general anaesthesia for obese patients, e.g. avoiding airway manipulation and systemic application of opioids. Although anesthesiologists are increasingly faced with obesity, regional anaesthesia poses a challenge because of missing landmarks, increased depth of nerval structures and difficulties in positioning these patients. While obesity is not associated with an increased risk for severe complications in regional anaesthesia, a higher failure rate can be observed because of difficulties in performing the blocks. Ultrasound guidance may be an important aid but it is associated with specific phenomena caused by obesity. Further studies are needed to optimize regional anaesthesia techniques and dosing of local anaesthetics avoiding block failures as well to improve the patients' safety and outcome.