The Effect of Pectoral Blocks on Perioperative Pain in Gender Affirmation Top Surgery

Summary

Despite recent advancements with regional and local anesthesia, postoperative pain continues to be a major concern for patients undergoing breast surgery. Opioids, often in combination with NSAIDS and/or gabapentioids, have been the main pharmacologic pain control strategy in the postoperative period. The pectoral nerve block is a regional anesthetic technique, which is effective at providing postoperative anesthesia in breast surgeries. However, this has only been studied in oncologic-related breast operations. It is our aim to study the effects of pectoral regional nerve blocks in patients undergoing breast reduction for gender affirmation. The overall goal is to establish an effective pain control regimen utilizing regional anesthetic techniques in this patient population. The specific objective of this proposal is to evaluate the effectiveness of these blocks on perioperative and postoperative analgesia. The hypothesis is that participants undergoing gender-affirmation breast surgery who receive a pectoral nerve block will have less perioperative and postoperative pain as well as reduced opioid consumption compared to those receiving a placebo. Participants who are undergoing gender affirmation breast reduction surgery will be randomized to either receive a preoperative nerve block or to receive a placebo. Intraoperative and postoperative opioid requirements will be compared in addition to post-operative pain scores. Participants will be asked to fill out a pain diary during their first week postoperatively. They will also be asked to document if, and when, narcotic pain medication was required for pain control. The two groups will be compared to determine if there was any difference in pain scores as well as narcotic medication requirements.

Timeline

Start

2020-06-16

Primary completion

2022-02-28

Completion

2022-04-30

Publications

• Background Bashandy GM, Abbas DN. Pectoral nerves I and II blocks in multimodal analgesia for breast cancer surgery: a randomized clinical trial. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2015 Jan-Feb;40(1):68-74. doi: 10.1097/AAP.0000000000000163.
• Background M N, Pandey RK, Sharma A, Darlong V, Punj J, Sinha R, Singh PM, Hamshi N, Garg R, Chandralekha C, Srivastava A. Pectoral nerve blocks to improve analgesia after breast cancer surgery: A prospective, randomized and controlled trial. J Clin Anesth. 2018 Mar;45:12-17. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinane.2017.11.027. Epub 2017 Dec 11.
• Background Benotsch EG, Zimmerman R, Cathers L, McNulty S, Pierce J, Heck T, Perrin PB, Snipes D. Non-medical use of prescription drugs, polysubstance use, and mental health in transgender adults. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013 Sep 1;132(1-2):391-4. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.02.027. Epub 2013 Mar 17.
• Background Day JK, Fish JN, Perez-Brumer A, Hatzenbuehler ML, Russell ST. Transgender Youth Substance Use Disparities: Results From a Population-Based Sample. J Adolesc Health. 2017 Dec;61(6):729-735. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.06.024. Epub 2017 Sep 21.
• Wallace AB, Song S, Yeh P, Kim EA. The Effect of Pectoral Nerve Blocks on Opioid Use and Postoperative Pain in Masculinizing Mastectomy: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2024 Mar 1;153(3):570-577. doi: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000010707. Epub 2023 May 23.

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