A local anesthetic is administered into the wound with a specially designed, multi-holed catheter. The catheter allows for even spread throughout the entire area of the wound, depending on the size of the catheter. The surgeon places the catheter during surgery shortly before closing the surgical incision. For best catheter placement and nerve blockage, the catheter must be located as close as possible to the nerve. Tunneling should be applied if a distal infiltration of the adjacent nerve root is preferred. For thoracic and abdominal surgeries, the surgeon will place the catheter superior to the respective fascias. For thoracic surgeries, the catheter goes superior to the pleura. For all type of abdominal surgeries the catheter should be close to the peritoneum. A recent systematic review showed that deep wound catheters (placed pre-peritoneally or in the transversus abdominis plane), provide better pain control than subcutaneous wound catheters after abdominal surgery. After being placed, the catheter is connected to an elastomeric pump that ensures a constant delivery of the anesthetic and also serves as the drug container. Depending on the flow rate and the pump size, one pump can provide<unk>  for several days.
Continuous wound infiltration
Wound bed preparation
Skin disinfection
Surgical suture
Wound closure strip
Surgical incision
Infiltration analgesia
Dressing 