Key result
Regional anesthesia techniques, such as fascial plane blocks, show potential in cardiac surgery by reducing perioperative opioid consumption and promoting earlier extubation compared to standard care.
Why the study?
To summarize the latest clinical data on fascial plane nerve blocks for pain control and opioid reduction in cardiothoracic surgery.
Do fascial plane nerve blocks improve postoperative pain control and reduce opioid consumption in patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery?
Do fascial plane nerve blocks improve postoperative pain control and reduce opioid consumption in patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery?
Fascial plane nerve blocks offer a promising, hemodynamically stable alternative to neuraxial anesthesia for multimodal pain management and opioid reduction in cardiac surgery.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May support multimodal analgesia in cardiac surgery to limit chronic pain; leaves open optimal regimens pending prospective trials.
With our population getting older and sicker, we are witnessing a steady increase in the volume of cardiothoracic procedures performed. As the role of anesthesiologists continues to shift towards being perioperative physicians, it is crucial to tailor the anesthetic to manage the surgical pain in both intraoperative and postoperative periods. In cardiac surgery, poorly controlled surgical pain can lead to opioid-induced hyperalgesia as well as chronic pain syndrome. As current practice encourages early extubation and decreased length of stay, clinicians have increasingly steered away from heavy intraop narcotic therapy over the past two decades. To blunt the sympathetic response and postoperative pain control, some have been using various fascial plane nerve blocks to reduce opioid use during surgery. These blocks are considered very safe to perform and do not lead to hemodynamic changes seen in neuraxial blockades. In this review article, we provide a brief overview of each of the commonly used blocks and summarize and discuss the latest clinical data for each of the common blocks and their efficacy in the setting of cardiothoracic surgery.
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Jiang et al. (2021) conducted a review in Cardiac surgery. Regional anesthesia (chest wall and sternal blocks) vs. Standard care / Opioid-based anesthesia was evaluated. Regional anesthesia techniques, such as fascial plane blocks, show potential in cardiac surgery by reducing perioperative opioid consumption and promoting earlier extubation compared to standard care.
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