Efficacy of ultrasound-guided lateral quadratus lumborum block on postoperative pain and quality of recovery in patients undergoing open nephrectomy: A randomized controlled study

In our study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of lateral quadratus lumborum block (QLB) on postoperative pain and quality of recovery (QoR) in patients undergoing open nephrectomy. This study was designed as a randomized, prospective study. Patients were divided into 2 groups as lateral QLB group (group QLB) and Morphine group (group M). Lateral QLB was applied to patients in the QLB group with 25 mL of 0.25% bupivacaine. Opioid consumption, visual analog scale (VAS) and QoR-15 scores of the patients in the first 72 hours postoperatively were recorded. A total of 40 patients were included in the study (group QLB, n = 20 and group M, n = 20). No significant difference was observed in total morphine consumption. VAS pain scores were lower in the lateral QLB group at postoperative 0th min, 30th min, 2nd, 3rd, 12th and 48th hour (P < .05). Postoperative agitation was significantly less in patients who underwent lateral QLB (P = .01). Length of hospital stay was shorter in the QLB group (P = .02). QoR-15 score was higher in lateral QLB group only on the 3rd postoperative day (P = .02). In patients undergoing open nephrectomy, lateral QLB may be a safe part of multimodal analgesia because it reduces postoperative pain scores, agitation and length of hospital stay. However, it should be noted that in our study, no significant difference was found between the groups in terms of total morphine consumption and QoR.