• Sabyasachi Das, Pradipta Bhattacharya, Mohan Chandra Mandal, Soma Mukhopadhyay, Sekhar Ranjan Basu, and Bikas Kusum Mandol.
• Department of Anaesthesiology, North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India.
• Indian J Anaesth. 2012 Jan 1;56(1):27-33.

BackgroundGeneral anaesthesia is currently the conventional technique used for surgical treatment of breast lump. Paravertebral block (PVB) has been used for unilateral procedures such as thoracotomy, breast surgery, chest wall trauma, hernia repair or renal surgery.MethodsWe compared unilateral thoracic PVB with general anaesthesia (GA) in 60 consenting ASA physical status I and II female patients of 18-65 years age, scheduled for unilateral breast surgery. Patients were randomly assigned into two groups, P (n=30) or G (n=30), to receive either PVB or GA, respectively.ResultsThe average time to first post-operative analgesic requirement at visual analogue scale score≥4 (primary endpoint) was significantly longer in group P (303.97±76.08 min) than in group G (131.33±21.36 min), P<0.001. Total rescue analgesic (Inj. Tramadol) requirements in the first 24 h were 105.17±20.46 mg in group P as compared with 176.67±52.08 mg in group G (P<0.001). Significant post-operative nausea and vomiting requiring treatment occurred in three (10.34%) patients of the PVB group and eight (26.67%) patients in the GA group.ConclusionThe present study concludes that unilateral PVB is more efficacious in terms of prolonging post-operative analgesia and reducing morbidities in patients undergoing elective unilateral breast surgery.

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