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Efficacy of SAP Block Versus ESP Block in VATS Surgery

Efficacy of Serratus Anterior Plane (SAP) Block Versus Erector Spinae Plane (ESP) Block for Quality of Recovery After Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery : A Randomised Control Trial

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT03862612
Acronym
ESPvSAP
Enrollment
60
Registered
2019-03-05
Start date
2019-06-05
Completion date
2020-04-02
Last updated
2020-05-04

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Regional Anesthesia Morbidity

Brief summary

During VATS (Video assisted thoracic surgery) small incisions are made in the patient's chest through which a camera and instruments are inserted to allow a lung operation to be performed. Often patients experience a substantial amount of pain and difficult recovery after this type of operation. Anaesthesiologists sometimes use Regional Anaesthesia to minimise the pain and help patient recovery after the operation. This involves injecting local anaesthesia into the nerves around the chest wall to effectively numb that part of the chest. There is a variety of different locations on the chest wall where the local anaesthetic can be deposited and no study has measured whether one technique is better than the other in terms of improving patients' recovery experience. Our study compares two new techniques for Regional Anaesthesia after this type of surgery. Participants will be randomly assigned (like tossing a coin) to receive either a SAP (Serratus Anterior Plane) or ESP (Erector Spinae Plane) Block. Both techniques are described within last five years, but have never been compared for chest surgery

Detailed description

The Serratus Anterior Plane (SAP) Block has been claimed to be a safer, technically less demanding alternative to paravertebral block and thoracic epidural in the management of post operative VATS associated pain . Recently, another new block, the Erector Spinae Block (ESP Block) has been described for use in thoracic wall surgery. It has also been claimed to be easier to perform than these more traditional methods of regional anaesthesia. No study to date has compared ESP to SAP blocks in terms of efficacy of post operative analgesia after VATS surgery. Furthermore, patient-centres outcome studies now demand that researchers evaluate more than acute pain in the early postoperative period: A 15-parameter Quality of Recovery score (QoR-15) has been recommended as the optimum tool to evaluate overall patient-centres measures of recovery after surgery, including pain. This study will test the hypothesis that patients receiving ESP Block have higher QoR-15 scores and better post operative analgesia in comparison with patients receiving SAP Block after VATS surgery.

Interventions

PROCEDUREregional anaesthesia with Levobupivicaine 0.25% 30mls with two methods either erector spinae plane block or serratus anterior plane block

Erector Spinae Plane Block will be compared to the Serratus Anterior Plane Block in patients undergoing Video assissted thoracic surgery

Sponsors

Mater Misericordiae University Hospital
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator)

Masking description

Blocks will be administered after induction of General Anesthesia so participants will be blinded to which intervention they have had. Study investigators will not be aware as to what group the participant belongs to when assessing the patient post operative period

Intervention model description

randomised control trial one group receives Serratus Anterior Plane Block the other receives Erector Spinae Plane Block

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Male and Female participants providing written informed consent, * ASA grade 1- 4, * aged over 18 * undergoing a VATS procedure under General Anaesthesia

Exclusion criteria

* Absence of informed written consent, * pre existing infection at block site,- * severe coagulopathy, * allergy to local anaesthesia, * pre existing neurological deficit, * previous history of opiate abuse, * pre existing chronic pain condition, * pre-existing dementia \[because of need to co-operate in completing QoR-15 score day after surgery\].

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
the patient centred QoR-15 score among ESB and SAP block patients;1 yearA 15-parameter Quality of Recovery score (QoR-15) has been recommended as the optimum tool to evaluate overall patient-centres measures of recovery after surgery, including pain. It is a questionnaire that is given to patients to do post operatively and is scored from 0 to 150 where 150 indicates that the patient has a had an excellent recovery

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Area under the Verbal Rating Scale (VRS) pain score versus time (24 hr post-op24 hours post opVerbal Rating Scale pain score is measured from 0 to 10 where 0 is no pain and 10 is severe pain
. VRS pain scores at 1 hr, 12 hr, 24 hr postop24 hours post op0-10 where 10 equals severe pain and 0 is no pain
time to administration of first rescue analgesia after the block24hours post op
documentation of adverse events : hypotension, pruritus, nausea and vomiting24 hours post op

Countries

Ireland

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 26, 2026