BILATERAL TRANSVERSUS ABDOMINIS PLANE BLOCK REDUCES POSTOPERATIVE NSAIDS USE AFTER LAPAROSCOPIC HERNIA REPAIR

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Bilateral peripheral block (TAP - block) is usually performed under ultrasonography (US) guidance in the plane between the inner oblique abdominal muscle and the transversal abdominal muscle, and it aims to block the thoracoabdominal nerves from Th6 to L1 by infiltrating local anesthetic. TAP block is effective tool of managing pain control, especially in the first twenty-four hours after surgery. It improves recovery pathway following minimally invasive surgery and reduces narcotic and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) use for postoperative pain management in various different abdominal surgery. AIM: The purpose of this research was to assess the analgesic efficacy of TAP block in regard to used NSAIDs concentrations during the first 24 hours following laparoscopic inguinal hernioplasty. METHODS: The study was conducted with 60 patients, who were randomized into two groups. Control group – were patients who received general anesthesia (GA), and experimental group, were patients who have received GA and a bilateral TAP block. All patients received NSAIDs in the postoperative period. RESULTS: From the acquired data, during the first postoperative hour (POH) only 20% of the experimental group required Paracetamol in a dosage of 1000 mg. Control patients used three times more NSAIDs (60%). Compared to the control group, 63.3% of TAP-block patients did not require analgesia from the 6th to the 12th POH. In the control group average amount of paracetamol was 5167 mg, while in experimental group it was twice lower. Similar finding was established in regard to Ketonal consumption. The control group (without TAP-block) consumes around twice as many NSAIDs as the experimental group at all post-operative time intervals. CONCLUSION: The findings of our research demonstrate that patients undergoing bilateral laparoscopic inguinal repair, administering ropivacaine as part of an US-guided bilateral TAP-block decreases the requirement of NSAIDs in the first twenty-four hours after surgery. TAP-block is a component of multimodal anesthesia and an adjuvant for intraoperative and postoperative analgesia.