Background: Cost, efficiency, patient preference, and safety have driven utilization of wide awake, local anesthesia, no tourniquet (WALANT) in hand surgery. This is not well documented in adolescents. We hypothesize that the use of WALANT with adolescents reduced time spent in the operating room (OR) and in the hospital when compared with patients who underwent surgery with traditional anesthesia (TA).
Methods: After institutional review board approval, we performed a retrospective review of patients aged 10 to 17 who underwent surgery at a regional hospital system including the level 1 pediatric trauma hospital. Operative notes were assessed for use of WALANT. We excluded those operations not traditionally amenable to WALANT. Using a propensity matched cohort, hospital time, OR time, and perioperative complications were recorded and compared to evaluate efficiency and perioperative safety.
Results: There were 28 cases in the WALANT group and 28 cases in the TA group after excluding cases not amenable to WALANT, and cases were propensity matched. Although the operative time (incision to closure) was similar, for WALANT patients, the in-room to procedure time (15 vs 22 minutes), procedure end to out-room time (5 vs 10 minutes), total room time (52.81 vs 63.68), and length of hospital stay (222 vs 342 minutes) were shorter than patients in the TA group.
Conclusion: Our case series demonstrates time-savings both in the OR and in the hospital overall. Avoiding TA when WALANT is feasible may result in significant savings to hospital systems, patients, and payers while also freeing up anesthesia staff and perioperative nurses.
Keywords: WALANT; adolescent; hand surgery; pediatric WALANT; pediatric hand; wide awake.