Background: Peripheral nerve block (PNB) usage in breast reconstruction (BR) improves post-operative pain with minimal risks. This study examined outcomes of patients receiving PNB for post-operative analgesia in BR. Methods: A retrospective analysis using the ACS-NSQIP database identified women that underwent BR from 2012-2021. Patients who received regional anesthesia in addition to general anesthesia were included. Patients that received other forms of anesthesia were excluded. Post-operative complications were compared between PNB and non-PNB groups, as well as among BR timing, modality, operative time and ASA class. Group differences assessed via t-tests and Fisher's Exact tests. Multivariate logistic regression assessed whether complications were independently associated with receiving PNBs. Results: Out of 25,188 patients, 9,429 patients (37.4%) received PNB for perioperative BR analgesia. Patients that received PNBs had longer operative times, more wound complications, reoperations and readmissions. PNB usage was associated with increased likelihood of SSI even when BR modality, timing, operative time and ASA classification were isolated ( p <0.05). Further, sub-group analysis revealed PNB use was associated with SSI for all BR modalities and timing. Conclusions: The decision to use PNBs in BR should be made with awareness of the associated risk of increased wound complications. Despite that, benefits of PNBs may still very well outweigh these risks for all our patients. However, based on our findings we still suggest increased surveillance and more comprehensive consultation. Further research into the association of PNB usage and wound complications should be performed such that our patients can obtain maximal benefit and minimize unwanted side-effects.
Dorante et al. (Tue,) studied this question.