Regional Anesthesia for Pain Management in Critically Ill Patients with Thoracoabdominal Conditions in the ICU

Jing Li^1*Yaping Lu^2*

• ¹Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
• ²First Hospital of Jiaxing, Jiaxing, China

This article aims to review the latest advancements in the application of regional anesthesia for perioperative pain management in critically ill patients with thoracic and abdominal conditions within the Intensive Care Unit (Intensive Care Unit,ICU) setting, with a focus on its indications, advantages, and clinical applications. Regional anesthesia and analgesia techniques are widely used in the perioperative period, offering broad indications and significant clinical benefits. As a key component of multimodal analgesia, various regional blockade techniques are increasingly being applied to critically ill patients. Combining regional anesthesia with other analgesic modalities can alleviate perioperative acute pain, reduce stress responses, decrease opioid consumption and related adverse effects, thereby promoting recovery and improving clinical outcomes. However, research on its use in the ICU remains limited. This review focuses on regional anesthesia techniques for critically ill patients after major thoracic and abdominal surgeries, including neuraxial blocks and emerging trunk blockade methods, and describes the challenges associated with performing regional blocks in this patient population.