Erector Spinae Plane (ESP) Block With 20 ml Versus 30 ml in Cardiac Surgery

Ankara City Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Postoperative Pain; Cardiac Surgery

Treatments: Procedure: bilateral erector spinae plane block with 20 mL 0.25 % bupivacaine; Procedure: bilateral erector spinae plane block with 30 mL 0.25 % bupivacaine

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04928521

MH2.3

Details and patient eligibility

About

Even though erector spinae plane (ESP) block is shown to be efficient in cardiac surgery, it is still controversial how much volume is necessary for efficient analgesic effect for sternotomy and drain tube pain relief. This study aims to investigate the optimal local anesthetic volume (20 mL versus 30 mL) with ESP block for open-heart cardiac surgery.

Full description

In cardiac surgery, the most common cause of pain during the first two days postoperatively is median sternotomy. In a study in which 705 patients who had undergone cardiac surgery were followed up prospectively, postoperative 24 hours pain scores ranging from 5.3 to 6.5 out of 10 with deep breathing and coughing were shown. In these patients, it may increase the frequency of atelectasis due to reasons such as failure in pain control, weak coughing, and limitation of movement, and these may lead increase in morbidity and hospital stay. Although nonsteroidal analgesics and opioids are used successfully in the control of this severe pain, they are far from being ideal analgesics alone due to their side effects such as kidney damage, bleeding risk, sedation, respiratory depression, itching, nausea, and vomiting. The complications of neuraxial techniques seem to be the disadvantages of these methods. Erector spinae plane (ESP) block is one of the regional anesthesia techniques that has been shown to be effective in reducing sternotomy pain in sternotomy-guided cardiac surgeries.

The Erector spinae plane (ESP) block was first described by Forero in 2016. In this block technique, a local anesthetic is given to the plane between the erector spinae muscle and the vertebral transverse process. The dorsal and ventral branches of the spinal nerves are blocked in this plane. However, due to individual regional anatomical differences, there is not enough data to determine the optimum volume at which the appropriate spread of local anesthetic will occur. Volume-based cadaver studies have some handicaps since they do not have the characteristics of living tissue.

This study aims to compare the postoperative analgesic efficacy of ESP block applied at the same dose but with different local anesthetic volumes in cardiac surgeries to be performed with sternotomy.

Enrollment: 70 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adult patients who will undergo coronary artery bypass grafting surgery with median sternotomy

Exclusion criteria

• Emergency surgeries
• Patients with allergic reactions to anesthesia and analgesia drugs to be used
• Patients who do not want to participate in the study voluntarily
• Severe systemic disease (kidney, liver, pulmonary, endocrine)
• Substance abuse history
• History of chronic pain
• Psychiatric problems and communication difficulties
• Patients who need revision due to hemostasis in the postoperative period
• Patients with severe hemodynamic instability due to infection, heavy bleeding, etc.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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70 participants in 2 patient groups

ESP block with 20 mL local anesthetic solution

Active Comparator group

Description:

An erector spinae plane block will be performed at the level of the 5th thoracic vertebrae with 20 mL of 0.25% bupivacaine solution under ultrasound guidance before the operation.

Treatment:

Procedure: bilateral erector spinae plane block with 20 mL 0.25 % bupivacaine

ESP block with 30 mL local anesthetic solution

Active Comparator group

Description:

An erector spinae plane block will be performed at the level of the 5th thoracic vertebrae with 30 mL of 0.25% bupivacaine solution under ultrasound guidance before the operation.

Treatment:

Procedure: bilateral erector spinae plane block with 30 mL 0.25 % bupivacaine