• Emine A Salviz, Nukhet Sivrikoz, Anil Ozonur, Mukadder Orhan-Sungur, Meltem Savran-Karadeniz, Demet Altun, Emre Hocaoglu, Burcu Celet-Ozden, and Kamil M Tugrul.
• Istanbul, Turkey From the Departments of Anesthesiology and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Istanbul University, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine.
• Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 2017 Jan 1; 139 (1): 20e-28e.

BackgroundThis study investigates whether ultrasound-guided thoracic paravertebral blocks would improve postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing bilateral reduction mammaplasty.MethodsAfter obtaining ethics committee approval, data of 70 patients who underwent bilateral reduction mammaplasty were reviewed. Sixty-four patients' data were evaluable; 30 were in the general anesthesia group and 34 were in the thoracic paravertebral block group. Data such as time to first pain, intraoperative fentanyl requirement, postoperative numeric rating scale scores, number of patients who required tramadol in the postoperative care unit, and rescue analgesic consumption through the first 2 postoperative days were analyzed.ResultsTime to first pain was 311 minutes (range, 0 to 1605 minutes) and 20 minutes (range, 0 to 120 minutes) in the thoracic paravertebral block and general anesthesia groups, respectively (p < 0.001). Fentanyl requirement was 52.94 ± 11.94 µg and 115 ± 29.79 µg in the thoracic paravertebral block and general anesthesia groups, respectively (p < 0.001). Numeric rating scale scores were lower in the thoracic paravertebral block group through the first 2 postoperative hours (p < 0.001), and only two of 34 patients required tramadol in the postoperative care unit (p < 0.001). On postoperative day 1, both metamizole sodium (p < 0.001) and paracetamol (p = 0.018), and on day 2, only metamizole sodium (p < 0.001) consumption was lower in the thoracic paravertebral block group.ConclusionAdding ultrasound-guided thoracic paravertebral blocks to general anesthesia postponed time to first pain and reduced analgesic consumption in patients undergoing bilateral reduction mammaplasty.Clinical Question/Level Of EvidenceTherapeutic, III.

29 keywords...

hide…