AUTHOR=Fenta Efrem , Kibret Simegnew , Hunie Metages , Tamire Tadese , Mekete Getachew , Tiruneh Abebe , Fentie Yewlsew , Dessalegn Kaletsidik , Teshome Diriba 

TITLE=The analgesic efficacy of erector spinae plane block versus paravertebral block in thoracic surgeries: a meta-analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2023.1208325

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2023.1208325

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=Acute postoperative pain after thoracic surgery might lead to chronic postsurgical pain (PSP), which lowers quality of life. The literature suggests thoracic paravertebral block (PVB) as a pain management approach. The ESPB (erector spinae plane block) is regarded to be an effective PVB alternative. The analgesic efficacy of the two analgesic therapies is controversial.The two analgesic treatments' analgesic effects are controver The purpose of this study is to compare the analgesic efficacy of ESPB and PVB in preventing acute PSP.We searched relevant articles in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases. The primary outcome was postoperative pain score, with secondary outcomes including analgesic intakeconsumption, the frequency of rescue analgesia, and postoperative nausea and vomiting.This meta-analysis included ten RCTs with a total of 670 patients. PVB significantly lowered the pain scores at movement at 12 h following surgery as compared to the ESPB. The PVB group used much less opioids within 24 hours after surgery compared to the ESPB group. However, there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of postoperative rescue analgesia or in the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (P> 0.05).PVB produced superior analgesia than ESPB in patients who underwent thoracic surgeries. In addition, PVB demonstrated greater opioid sparing effect by consuming much less opioids.