Comparative study between Bilateral U/S guided Transversus Abdominis Plane Block versus local wound infiltration for post-operative pain management in lower abdominal surgeries

Abstract

Abstract Background Poorly controlled acute pain after abdominal surgery is related to somatic pain signals derived from the abdominal wall and is associated with a variety of unwanted post-operative consequences, including patient suffering, distress, respiratory complications, delirium, myocardial ischemia, prolonged hospital stay, an increased likelihood of chronic pain, increased consumption of analgesics, delayed bowel function and increase the requirement for rescue analgesics. Appropriate pain treatment protocols to reduce postoperative morbidity, improve the results of the surgery and decrease hospital costs. Objective to assess the postoperative analgesic efficacy of transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block compared local wound infiltration after lower abdominal surgery regarding the pain relief, effect on hemodynamics, requirement of first supplemental doses of analgesia and total number of doses received. Patients and Methods All patients were informed with the procedure US guided TAP block and were trained to use the visual analogue scale (VAS). The study was conducted on 100 randomly chosen patients aged 25 to 55 years, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class I or II scheduled for lower abdominal surgery in Ain Shams University Hospitals after approval of the medical ethical committee. They were allocated in two groups of 50 patients each: Results The results of the study revealed that there is Patients receiving TAP block had significantly lower pain scores for 12 h after operation and decrease total need of analgesic in first 24 h post operative compared with patients who received wound infiltration. Conclusion Bilateral TAP block was effective in reducing postoperative pain scores at rest and movement for 8-12hours and lower total 24-h postoperative opioid and analgesic consumption after lower abdominal surgeries under general anesthesia, compared to local wound infiltration..