Nerve Injury Associated with Intraoperative Blood Pressure Cuff Compression

Peripheral nerve injury is a rare complication of anesthesia. Although most symptoms of peripheral neuropathies after anesthesia resolve spontaneously, permanent nerve damage is a serious complication. Risk factors have been described in literature, but in the majority of cases the direct cause remains unclear. We describe two patients with transient neurological dysfunction of the median and ulnar nerve after general anesthesia and suggest blood pressure cuff compression as a possible cause. It may be a more frequently occurring cause of peripheral nerve injury than suggested in the literature so far. To reduce such damage we propose two alternative strategies.