The CIA Score: a Learner's Tool

Prior survey of Stanford and Palo Alto VA regional anesthesiologists showed diverging assessments of whether various blocks are considered superficial or deep. Investigators hope to have a simple systematic approach to "scoring" regional anesthesia procedures which can be used as a basis for discussion and comparison of regional expert's opinions. A scoring system using three categories of consideration to classify any regional procedure is proposed. The following three categories, Critical, Intervention, and Assess (CIA) can be used to analyze any procedure to determine bleeding risk. A score of 0 or 1, was given to each parameter depending on whether it was absent or present. A total score can be range from 0 to 3. From this, the risk can be categorized based on the total score as low-risk (0), intermediate-risk (1) or high-risk (2 or 3).