• Tjokorda Gde Agung Senapathi, I Made Gede Widnyana, I Gusti Ngurah Mahaalit Aribawa, Made Wiryana, I Ketut Sinardja, I Ketut Wibawa Nada, Aa Gde Putra Semara Jaya, and I Gede Koko Swadharma Putra.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Sanglah Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.
• J Pain Res. 2017 Jan 1; 10: 1619-1622.

PurposeThyroidectomy causes postoperative pain and patient discomfort. Bilateral superficial cervical plexus block is a regional anesthesia technique that can provide analgesia during and after surgery. This study aims to compare the effectiveness of ultrasound (US)-guided versus landmark (LM) technique for bilateral superficial cervical plexus block in thyroidectomy.Patients And MethodsThirty-six patients undergoing thyroidectomy were divided into two groups randomly (n=18); either US-guided (US group) or LM technique (LM group) for bilateral superficial cervical plexus block. Patient-controlled analgesia was used to control postoperative pain. Intraoperative opioid rescue, postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) score and opioid consumption were measured.ResultsThe number of patients who required intraoperative opioid rescue was significantly lower in the US group (p≤0.05). There was no significant difference in postoperative VAS score at 3 hours (p>0.05), but postoperative VAS score at 6 and 24 hours was significantly lower in the US group (p≤0.05). Twenty-four hour postoperative opioid consumption was significantly lower in the US group (p≤0.05).ConclusionUltrasound-guided bilateral superficial cervical plexus block is more effective in reducing pain both intra- and postoperatively compared with landmark technique in patients undergoing thyroidectomy.

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