Using the Perfusion Index for Block Success in Pediatric Patients: A Retrospective Study

Study objective: To investigate the efficacy of the perfusion index in assessing block success in pediatric patients undergoing elective supracondylar fracture repair surgery. Methods: It was a retrospective study in a tertiary-care center. Twenty-eight pediatric supracondylar humerus fracture patients who underwent elective surgery for fracture repair were evaluated. Perfusion index, pulse rate, pleth variability index (PVi), and oxygen saturation were measured at different time intervals before and after the coracoid infraclavicular block procedure. Main results: The changes in perfusion index (PI) values were found to be statistically significant (p˂0.05). The Bonferroni analysis revealed that the results obtained at three separate measurement times differed significantly (p˂0.05). On the other hand, changes in other variables were not statistically significant (p˃0.05). Conclusions: The perfusion index can be used as an indicator of block success in elective surgeries of the upper extremities in pediatric patients.