Shraddha Agrawal1, Avan Suryawanshi2, Umesh Sharma3, Thara Jojo4, Vaishali Choure5
BACKGROUND
This was a randomised single-blinded study. It was designed to compare the
superiority of infiltration analgesia and ultrasound guided unilateral transversus
abdominis plane block on pain scores, total opioid consumption, and assess the
side effects of opioid after nephrectomy.
METHODS
This study included 56 patients aged between 18 - 50 years with American Society
of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) status II - III who underwent nephrectomy. Patients
were broadly placed in 2 groups, who underwent transversus abdominis plane
block for postoperative analgesia as Group TAP and infiltration analgesia as Group
LA. Visual analog scale was used for post-operative pain evaluation at the 0, 2, 4,
6, 8, 12, 24 hours. Patients with VAS of more than 3 were given tramadol 1 mg /
Kg. In the first 24 hours postoperatively, total analgesic consumption, rate of
nausea vomiting and other side effect of patients were recorded and results were
evaluated statistically.
RESULTS
Demographic characteristics were similar in the two groups; post-operative visual
analog scale (VAS) score were significantly less in the transversus abdominis plane
block group at the 6th, 8th and 12th hours compared to the infiltration analgesia
group. The total analgesic consumption and nausea-vomiting rates were
significantly lower in the transversus abdominis plane block.
CONCLUSIONS
In our study transversus abdominis plane block method was found superior to
infiltration analgesia method on post-operative pain management in unilateral
nephrectomy. In conclusion, we recommend the transversus abdominis plane
block to be effective for post-operative analgesia after unilateral nephrectomy.
