My half-century love affair with regional anesthesia: hard lessons from war to microanatomy to acute pain medicine and beyond

Key Points

• The aim is to reflect on the crucial lessons learned in regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine through experience and mistakes.
• Recounts personal experiences and lessons learned over a 50-year career
• Highlights interactions with patients, students, mentors, and colleagues
• Reflects on improvisation and intuitive learning from errors
• Insights gained from interactions with various stakeholders in the field
• Identification of key mistakes that provided important learning opportunities
• Suggestions for improving regional anesthesia techniques based on past experiences