• Ali Dabbagh and Hedayatollah Elyasi.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Taleghani Hospital, School of Medicine, Shaheed Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
• Med. Sci. Monit. 2007 Oct 1;13(10):CR464-7.

BackgroundRegional anesthesia is an alternative to general anesthesia in selected surgical settings. Paravertebral block as a regional anesthesia technique was compared with general anesthesia for elective breast surgeries regarding postoperative pain.Material/MethodsSixty patients scheduled for breast surgery were randomized to two groups of 30 patients each: general anesthesia (control group) and paravertebral block (study group). Postoperative pain, the primary outcome variable of the study, was assessed by a numeric rating scale at 1, 3, and 6 hours during the postoperative period. Total amount of morphine and hospital stay were also recorded. Student's t-test and ANOVA were used to compare results. A p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsThe paravertebral group was found to have better postoperative pain relief (p=0.0000), reduced need for morphine (p=0.0000), and a shorter hospital stay (p=0.0000) compared with the general anesthesia group.ConclusionsThe study suggests paravertebral block as a suitable alternative to general anesthesia in selected breast surgical patients regarding postoperative pain reduction.

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