Analgesic Efficacy of Transmuscular Quadratus Lumborum in Patients Undergoing Total Abdominal Hysterectomy

Summary

Patients who have undergone laparotomies often require multimodal postoperative pain regimes. In recent years, abdominal wall blocks have been included to become part of this in order to overcome side effects of systemic opioids and complications from epidural analgesia. Borglum popularised a new approach on abdominal wall blocks by introducing the transmuscular quadratus lumborum (QL) block. Transmuscular QL block is thought to be effective against somatic and visceral pain as local anaesthetic tends to spread from the site of injection to thoracic paravertebral spaces where the sympathetic chain lies. The objective of this study is to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of transmuscular QL block in patients undergoing total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH) by measuring cumulative opioid consumption, pain score at rest and on movement 24 hours after TAH. Our hypothesis is patients given transmuscular QL block will have lower cumulative opioid consumption.

Timeline

Start

2015-11

Primary completion

2017-01

Completion

2017-01

Publications

• Background Hebbard P, Fujiwara Y, Shibata Y, Royse C. Ultrasound-guided transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block. Anaesth Intensive Care. 2007 Aug;35(4):616-7. No abstract available.
• Background Abdallah FW, Laffey JG, Halpern SH, Brull R. Duration of analgesic effectiveness after the posterior and lateral transversus abdominis plane block techniques for transverse lower abdominal incisions: a meta-analysis. Br J Anaesth. 2013 Nov;111(5):721-35. doi: 10.1093/bja/aet214. Epub 2013 Jun 27.
• Background Carney J, Finnerty O, Rauf J, Bergin D, Laffey JG, Mc Donnell JG. Studies on the spread of local anaesthetic solution in transversus abdominis plane blocks. Anaesthesia. 2011 Nov;66(11):1023-30. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2044.2011.06855.x. Epub 2011 Aug 18.
• Background Kadam VR. Ultrasound-guided quadratus lumborum block as a postoperative analgesic technique for laparotomy. J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol. 2013 Oct;29(4):550-2. doi: 10.4103/0970-9185.119148.
• Background Kadam VR. Ultrasound guided quadratus lumborum block or posterior transversus abdominis plane block catheter infusion as a postoperative analgesic technique for abdominal surgery. J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol. 2015 Jan-Mar;31(1):130-1. doi: 10.4103/0970-9185.150575. No abstract available.
• Background Visoiu M, Yakovleva N. Continuous postoperative analgesia via quadratus lumborum block - an alternative to transversus abdominis plane block. Paediatr Anaesth. 2013 Oct;23(10):959-61. doi: 10.1111/pan.12240. Epub 2013 Aug 9.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.