Paravertebral Block for Postoperative Analgesia in Thoracoscopic Surgery

Patient Controlled Paravertebral Analgesia for Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery

To access the analgesic efficacy of patient controlled thoracic paravertebral analgesia.

The study was carried out on thirty patients who underwent video-assisted thoracic surgery.Paravertebral space was identified by loss of resistance technique under video-assisted inside thoracic space before chest close.Initiated dose of 0.3ml/kg of bupivacaine 0.125%+fentanyl 2 mcg/ml was administered then continued patient-controlled analgesia with background rate 3ml/h, bolus dose 2ml, lockout interval 10 minutes. Postoperative pain was accessed by Visual Analogue Scale at rest and on coughing; monitor the heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, SpO2, arterial blood gas and spirometry in three postoperative consecutive days.

Inclusion Criteria:

• American Society of Anesthesiologists class I to III risk undergoing elective VATS, aged 32-72 years, scheduled for lung resection surgery.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who refused to participate, less than 18 years of age, ASA physical status 3 or more,, allergy to any of the study drugs, patients having any contraindication to placement of PVB, kyphoscoliosis, presence of acute herpes zoster, chronic pain syndrome, chronic analgesic use and psychiatric disease.