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Transversus Abdominis Plane Versus Caudal Block for Pediatrics

M

Mansoura University

Status and phase

Completed
Phase 1

Conditions

Lower Abdominal Surgery

Treatments

Other: Transversus abdominis plane block
Drug: Bupivacaine
Other: Caudal block

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02398123
MUH-Feb-2015

Details and patient eligibility

About

The transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block is a relatively simple technique that provides myocutaneous anesthesia that, as part of a multimodal analgesic treatment, may be useful in the prevention and treatment of parietal postoperative pain.

Initial experience with ultrasound TAP block demonstrated efficacy of the echo guided technique in different surgical procedures such as cesarean section, appendicectomy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, infra umbilical surgery in adult and pediatric patients. Recently published clinical trials suggest that TAP block may represents an effective alternative to epidural anesthesia but further studies in larger population are necessary.

Transversus-abdominis plane (TAP) block was found to increase analgesic consumption low thoracic-epidural analgesia (TEA) in ischemic heart disease patients after abdominal laparotomy (2). Others found comparable results between continuous transversus abdominis plane technique and epidural analgesia in regard to pain, analgesic use and satisfaction after abdominal surgery(3). The TAP block affords effective analgesia with opioid sparing effects, technical simplicity, and long duration of action. Some disadvantages include the need for bilateral block for midline incisions and absence of effectiveness for visceral pain (4). TAP block has been associated with good pain relief and decreased intraoperative and postoperative opioids requirements after laparoscopic surgery (5). The analgesic efficacy of the TAP block has been demonstrated in prospective randomized trials compared with placebo, in different surgical procedures such as abdominal surgery, hysterectomy, retro pubic prostatectomy, Caesarean section, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and appendicectomy (6, 7, 8, 9, 5 and 10 respectively). All these studies have reported superiority of the TAP block in terms of reduction in visual analogue scale scores and morphine consumption. In this study the investigators try to compare Transversus Abdominis Plane (TAP) blocks versus caudal block for postoperative pain control after lower abdominal surgeries in pediatrics.

Full description

Children aged 1-7 years undergoing lower abdominal surgeries would be recruited in this randomized study.

Children would be monitored by electrocardiogram, pulse oximeter and non-invasive blood pressure.

After preoxygenation for three minutes, anesthesia would be induced with 8% sevoflurane inhalation in 33% oxygen and 66% nitrous oxide; 1ug/kg fentanyl is administered intravenously. Then laryngeal mask is inserted when conditions are satisfactory (jaw relaxed, lash reflex disappeared, no coughing, gagging, swallowing).

Anesthesia would be maintained with 2% sevoflurane and nitrous oxide.

An increase in blood pressure or heart rate by more than 15% from preoperative value was defined as insufficient analgesia and was treated with fentanyl 0.5 µ/kg. Saline dextrose5% (1:1) solution was infused in a dose of 12 ml/ kg /h.

Children were transferred from PACU to day-surgery unit (DSU) if they achieved Modified Aldrete Score of ten.

Patients received rectal paracetamol 15 mg/ kg every 6 hours. Tramadol 1mg/kg is rescue analgesic.

Enrollment

28 patients

Sex

All

Ages

1 to 7 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • Children
  • Lower abdominal surgery

Exclusion criteria

  • Allergy to study medications
  • Contraindications to caudal block
  • Contraindications to transversus abdominis block

Trial design

Primary purpose

Treatment

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

Quadruple Blind

28 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Transversus abdominis plane block
Active Comparator group
Description:
Transversus Abdominis Plane block
Treatment:
Drug: Bupivacaine
Other: Transversus abdominis plane block
Caudal block
Placebo Comparator group
Description:
Caudal block
Treatment:
Drug: Bupivacaine
Other: Caudal block

Trial contacts and locations

1

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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