ArticleSouth African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care2025
Regional anaesthesia in the emergency centre: Knowledge, attitudes and practices of doctors in the Western Cape, South Africa.
Article in South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- The utilisation of procedural sedation and analgesia at a regional hospital emergency department in KwaZulu-Natal.Journal of the colleges of medicine of South Africa · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRegional anaesthesia in emergency centres (ECs) offers clear benefits for patient care and system efficiency. However, its use in South African ECs remains inconsistent, and the knowledge, attitudes and practices of emergency doctors are not well understood. A notable gap exists in formal training.
methodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among EC doctors at four district hospitals in the Metro-East health district of the Western Cape, South Africa. Data were collected via an electronic questionnaire exploring knowledge, attitudes and practices related to regional anaesthesia.
resultsEighty-five doctors participated (58% response rate). Among them, 67.1% had prior training in peripheral nerve blocks, predominantly informal and peer-based (98.2%), with only 8.8% receiving formal training. Most (96.5%) expressed interest in further training. Regional anaesthesia was underused: 36.5% used it less than monthly, 23.5% weekly and only 2.4% daily. Despite this, 77.6% rated it as important or very important, and 75.3% scored its usefulness ≥ 7/10. Barriers included limited confidence in managing local anaesthetic toxicity and inconsistent monitoring: 39.1% never monitored, while only 25% did so consistently. The most cited barrier (92.9%) was a lack of knowledge.
conclusionDespite strong interest and favourable attitudes, regional anaesthesia remains underutilised because of limited knowledge, informal training and concerns about safety and monitoring.Contribution: This study reveals a disconnect between positive clinician attitudes and limited practical competence. It underscores the need for structured, formal educational initiatives to support safe and effective regional anaesthesia use in district ECs.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.