Regional anesthesia is a procedure during which an anesthesiologist locates a nerve within a patient's
body and injects bulk of local anesthetic (usually 30 to 40 ml) in order to block the conduction of pain by
that specific nerve. It is performed routinely in the practice of anesthesiology by rate of several thousands
daily nationwide. This is done so a surgical procedure can be done without the patient feeling the pain. It
usually takes two people (a doctor and a nurse) to provide the nerve block. The anesthesiologist rests
one hand on the surface of patient's body and uses the other hand to advance the needle into the body
toward the nerve. A second person operates a nerve stimulator (a small electric device which sends
electric current through the needle towards the targeted nerve) and when the nerve is located (muscles
innervated by that nerve start to contract) he or she inject the local anesthetics. During the injection of
medicine, anesthesiologist's both hands should stay as motionless as possible to allow injection of
medicine in very close proximity of the nerve and yet not into the nerve trunk itself or the nearby vessels
to prevent grave complications (nerve damage, convulsions, coma, even death) from happening.