• Si Wu, Xiao-Yu Zhang, Shu-Tong Deng, Ping Wang, Ai-Feng Liu, Jin-Chang Han, Qing-Tong Cui, Hai-Bo Xie, and Wei-Min Wang.
• Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China; National Clinical Research Center for Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Tianjin, China. Electronic address: wusi19870111@163.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2024 Jan 1; 181: e655e677e655-e677.

ObjectiveA meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was conducted to assess efficacy and safety of bilateral ultrasound-guided erector spinae plane block (ESPB) for postoperative analgesia in patients receiving spine surgery.MethodsPubMed, Embase, and CENTRAL databases were searched by 2 reviewers independently to identify randomized controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of ultrasound-guided ESPB for pain management in patients undergoing spine surgery. For meta-analysis, mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were selected for continuous data, and risk ratio (RR) and 95% CI were selected for dichotomous variables.ResultsA total of 25 randomized controlled trials including 1917 patients (873 in ESPB group and 874 in control group) were eligible for inclusion. At rest, ESPB was associated with significantly lower pain intensity at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24, and 48 hours compared with the control group. During movement, ESPB was associated with significantly lower pain intensity at 0, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24, and 48 hours compared with the control group. Significantly reduced opioid consumption (MD = -6.29, 95% CI [-8.16, 4.41], P < 0.001), prolonged time for first rescue analgesia (MD = 7.51, 95% CI [3.47, 11.54], P < 0.001), fewer patients needing rescue analgesia (RR = 0.34, 95% CI [0.28, 0.43], P < 0.0001), improved patient satisfaction (MD = 1.34, 95% CI [0.88, 1.80], P < 0.001), and shorter length of hospital stay (MD = -0.38, [95% CI -0.50, -0.26], P < 0.001) were demonstrated after use of ESPB. Additionally, ESPB was associated with decreased risks of any adverse event (RR = 0.51, 95% CI [0.43, 0.60], P < 0.001) and postoperative nausea and vomiting events (RR = 0.39, 95% CI [0.31, 0.49], P < 0.001).ConclusionsUltrasound-guided ESPB is an effective adjunctive technique with good tolerability for multimodal analgesia in management of pain in patients undergoing spine surgery.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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