Is There a Need for a Continuous Local Pain Therapy, a Peridural Catheter, or an Opioid-Based Patient Controlled Analgesia Pump After Radical Axillary Lymph Node Dissection?

Abstract

Schell et al. published a very interesting study about pain therapy after axillary level I to II lymph node dissection (ALND) [1]. In a randomized trial with 27 patients in three subsequent groups they evaluated the effects of a post-operative continuous local anesthesia infusion on post-operative pain, sedation and nausea. Group A was treated by the standard surgical therapy alone, group B underwent the same therapy and an intra-operative implantation of a continuous infusion catheter attached to a pump device filled with 0.5% bupivacaine or 0.9% saline (group C).