Continuous Paravertebral Block on Postoperative Pain After Hepatectomy

Continuous Right Thoracic Paravertebral Block on Postoperative Pain After Right Lobe Hepatectomy

Patients often experience moderate to severe postoperative pain, especially during the first hours after hepatectomy. Systemic opioids given with patient-controlled analgesia has be used after hepatectomy in many medical center(Aubrun, Monsel et al. 2001; Aubrun, Salvi et al. 2005), but the analgesic effect can be limited and undesirable side effects may occur.

A case report described that right thoracic paravertebral block reduced pain and analgesic requirements after right lobe hepatectomy(Ho, Karmakar et al. 2004). Compared with epidural analgesia, thoracic paravertebral block probably carries a much lower risk of spinal haematoma in the presence of moderate haemostatic deficiencies (Richardson and Lonnqvist 1998; Karmakar 2001).

We therefore designed a prospective, randomized, subject and assessor blinded, parallel-group, placebo controlled study to test the hypothesis that continuous right thoracic paravertebral analgesia decreases opioid consumption during the first 24 h after right lobe hepatectomy in patients receiving i.v. patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with sufentanil.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18-70 yrs
• American Society of Anesthesiologists physical statusⅠ-Ⅲ
• Undergo right lobe hepatectomy
• Informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• A known allergy to the drugs being used
• Coagulopathy, on anticoagulants
• Analgesics intake, history of substance abuse
• Participating in the investigation of another experimental agent
• Inability to properly describe postoperative pain to investigators (eg, language barrier, neuropsychiatric disorder)