• Nanze Yu, Xiao Long, Jorge R Lujan-Hernandez, Julien Succar, Xin Xin, and Xiaojun Wang.
• Division of Plastic Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Science, No.1 Shuaifuyuan, Wangfujing, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100730 China.
• BMC Anesthesiol. 2014 Jan 1; 14: 121.

BackgroundPostoperative pain management is of great importance in perioperative anesthetic care. Transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block has been described as an effective technique to reduce postoperative pain and morphine consumption after open lower abdominal operations. Meanwhile, local anesthetic infiltration (LAI) is also commonly used as a traditional method. However, the effectiveness of these two methods has not been compared before.MethodsA meta-analysis of all relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to compare the efficacy of single shot TAP block with that of single shot LAI for postoperative analgesia in adults. Major medical databases and trial registries were searched for published and unpublished RCTs. The endpoints include postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) pain score, morphine requirement, and rate of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). For continuous data, weighted mean differences (WMDs) were formulated; for dichotomous data, risk ratios (RR) were calculated. Results were derived using a random-/fixed-effects model with 95% confidence interval (CI).ResultsFour RCTs, encompassing 96 TAP-block and 100 LAI patients, were included in the final analysis. Patients in the TAP-block group had lower VAS pain scores 24 hours postoperatively compared with the LAI group, both at rest (WMD [95% CI] = -0.67 [p < 0.01] and with movement (WMD = -0.89, p < 0.01). There were no significant between-group differences in 24-hour postoperative morphine requirements, the rates if PONV or VAS pain scores at 2 and 4 h postoperatively.ConclusionTAP block and LAI provide comparable short-term postoperative analgesia, but TAP block has better long-lasting effect.

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