ASRA Pain Medicine Update

And That’s a Wrap!

Nabil Elkassabany, MD, MSCE, ASRA News Editor

Just like that, 3 years are now over. As I write my last article as your ASRA News editor, I look back at the past 3 years and I am really proud of what ASRA News has become. I am grateful for the time and effort that the ASRA News family has put in over the past 3 years to get us to this point. I have witnessed ASRA News transition from print to digital, and I can attest to how much this allowed us to expand our content and include resources in each article that we were incapable of before. I am confident that ASRA News will continue to thrive under the editorship of Kristopher Schroeder, MD. I have no doubt that he will bring new energy and brilliant ideas to enrich this platform and take it to the next level.

I want to thank every ASRA member who contributed to ASRA News during my tenure and allowed us to offer you the materials we presented each quarter. I am also grateful to the ASRA staff who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to bring you each issue. I was fortunate to share my time with our dedicated committee members and associate editors. Last but not least, I would like to thank ASRA leadership for their support and for entrusting me with this opportunity to serve the subspecialty I cherish.

“I look back at the past 3 years and I am really proud of what ASRA News has become.”

OK! Enough with the thank-yous.

This issue of your ASRA News is a phenomenal one. With the 2018 World Congress on Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine in New York City just around the corner, ASRA members and leaders share why they are going to the
Big Apple. We also present two examples of fighting the opioid epidemic. The first highlights the collaboration between Pennsylvania state and government officials and pain physicians, and the second discusses the effort of the pain physician group at the University of Texas and its plans to further educate providers and regulate opioid prescription practices. I also know you will be intrigued by this issue's “How I Do It” article, where the regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine group at Penn State Hershey Medical Center shares its experience in expanding the use of a relatively new erector spinae plane block for acute pain management after thoracic trauma and rib fractures.

In this issue, we also present articles about myofascial pain, use of ultrasound for interventional pain procedures, and the lost art of intravenous regional anesthesia. We share Ohio State University's experience in training its nursing staff on simulation scenarios for local anesthetic systemic toxicity. There's so much more to share in this issue, but you have to read it all to learn it all.