Tramadol Hydrochnoride as Adjuvant to Local Anesthetic in Ultrasound Guided Erector Spinea Plane Block in Management of Chronic Chest Wall Cancer Pain

Effect of Tramadol Hydrochnoride as Adjuvant to Local Anesthetic in Ultrasound Guided Erector Spinea Plane Block in Management of Chronic Chest Wall Cancer Pain: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Chest wall pain is a severe and distressing symptom. The erector spinae plane block (ESPB) is an interfascial plane block where local anesthetic is injected between the erector spine muscle and the transverse process. It is a simple procedure, with easy sonographic landmarks, for postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing thoracic, abdominal, lumbar, and urologic surgery. The ESPB was initially described to relieve chronic pain from metastatic disease and rib fractures.

Chest wall pain is a severe and distressing symptom.Interventional pain management aims to use invasive techniques such as joint injections, nerve blocks and/or neurolysis, neuromodulation, and cement augmentation techniques to diagnose and treat pain syndromes unresponsive to conventional medical management. The erector spinae plane block (ESPB) is an interfascial plane block where local anesthetic (LA) is injected between the erector spine muscle and the transverse process. It is a simple procedure, with easy sonographic landmarks, for postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing thoracic, abdominal, lumbar, and urologic surgery. The ESPB was initially described to relieve chronic pain from metastatic disease and rib fractures.

The ESPB provides blockade of ventral and dorsal ramus from T1-2 to T8-12 with easy insertion of a catheter into the distension induced by the injectate. It is performed away from the pleura and neuraxis, with low risk of complications in these structures.To our knowledge it is the first time study to evaluate the effectiveness of tramadol hydrochloride as adjuvant to local anaesthetic in ultrasound guided ESPB in the management of chronic chest wall cancer pain. Our hypothesis is that tramadol, when added to the local anaesthetic solution injected for ESPB, may improve analgesia and decrease the opioid consumption in patients with chronic chest wall cancer pain

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients with persistent chronic chest wall cancer pain (>6 months) with VAS pain score ≥ 5 on 0 to 10 scale despite of medical treatment with tramodine up to 200 mg daily

Exclusion Criteria:

• they have hypersensitivity to any of the studied drugs,
• obesity (BMI >35),
• presence of local pathology such as recurrent cancer or infection at the site of injection,
• abnormal coagulation profile,
• an abnormal liver or renal function
• unable to express their pain or
• patient refusal