Transversus Abdominis Plane Block Versus Wound Infiltration of Local Anesthesia For Post Operative Analgesia

Abstract

Background: Since the concept of day care surgeries are getting more popular, surgeons and anesthesiologists are trying their best to provide adequate post operative analgesia. Infiltration of surgical wound with local anesthetics has been a well established practice to take care of post operative pain and the TAP block has been recently popularized. Aim: To compare the efficacy of TAP block with wound infiltration of local anesthesia for post operative pain. Material and Method: The study included total 50 patients grouped in two groups having 25 each. Group I received TAP block and group II received local infiltration of local anesthesia. The pain scores were measured in the two groups using VAS at 1 hour, 3 hours, 6 hours and 12 hours after surgery. Results: The TAP block group was shown to have statistically significant post operative analgesia even after 12 hours of surgery as compared to wound infiltration group; however the pain scores in both the groups were comparable till 6 hours of surgery. Conclusion: TAP block and wound infiltration of local anesthesia both provide significant post operative analgesia initially but the effects are more long lasting in TAP block.