Patients undergoing breast surgery require a multimodal postoperative pain treatment regimen that provides high quality analgesia with minimal side effects.
Thoracic Epidural Analgesia and paravertebral blocks became the gold standard to achieve postoperative pain relief after breast surgery, but not every anaesthiologist is comfortable performing these procedures. As an alternative for these technigues Serratus anterior plane block was designed.
SAPB involves depositing LA in the plane superficial or deep to the serratus anterior muscle, and has been suggested to provide analgesia in similar surgeries involving the breast and hemithorax.
AIM OF THE WORK
The primary aim of this study was to compare between the efficiency of serratus anterior plane block and thoracic epidural analgesia in terms of postoperative pain relief in the 1st 24 hours determined by VAS score.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
PATIENTS:
40 female patients aged 25-50 years old,
Exclusion criteria:
• History of allergy or contraindication to any of the studied drugs.
• Patient refusal.
• Skin infection at the site of injection.
• Bleeding disorders or receiving anticoagulant.
• Spine or chest wall deformity.
Body mass index more than 35 kg/m2.