Our health care system is driven by lawsuits, doctors are always in "cover my own butt" mode, no matter what. For the anesthesiologist to give you a block in the arm is too much risk for him. If something goes wrong in that arm it will be difficult for him to defend doing that block for a "hip" surgery. VS if you get spread post-op it cannot be proven it is due to him NOT giving the block. SO he's going with the " cover my butt" option. I'm not saying this is good medicine, I'm saying this is the reality of how treatment decisions are made. Add to that - the other major driver in our broken health care system , insurance reimbursement. He isn't going to give the block if the medical insurance won't pay for it. Sorry to be a debbie-downer.