Ultrasound-guided bilateral anterior quadratus lumborum block at the lateral supra-arcuate ligament in patients undergoing laparoscopic radical gastrectomy: A randomised controlled study.

Objective: Ultrasound-guided bilateral anterior quadratus lumborum block at the lateral supra-arcuate ligament has recently been proposed as an effective analgesia for abdominal surgery. To test the hypothesis that this novel technique was a viable alternative approach of conventional thoracic epidural analgesia for laparoscopic radical gastrectomy.

Methods: Three hundred patients scheduled for laparoscopic radical gastrectomy were randomised 1:1 into the anterior quadratus lumborum block group: receiving the novel regional analgesia, and the thoracic epidural analgesia group: receiving thoracic epidural anaesthesia. The primary endpoint was intraoperative consumption of propofol and remifentanil. Intention-to-treat analysis was performed for all variables.

Results: At five and ten minutes after block, anterior quadratus lumborum block group achieved more dermatomes coverage of the sensory block with both p < 0.001. Intraoperative consumption of propofol and remifentanil was comparable between two groups (1116.21 ± 199.76 versus 1166.45 ± 125.31µg, p = 0.245 and remifentanil 1.83 ± 0.41 versus 1.81 ± 0.37ng, p = 0.988). However, anterior quadratus lumborum block group was associated with less intraoperative consumption of norepinephrine and atropine, shorter time to urinary catheter removal and out-of-bed activity than the thoracic epidural anaesthesia group. No significant difference in extubation time, pain scores at rest and exercising at all time points following surgery was observed between the two groups.

Conclusions: Compared with conventional thoracic epidural anaesthesia, the novel technique was an equivalent effective component of multimodal analgesic protocol for laparoscopic radical gastrectomy. There were some advantages, including shorter procedure time, more reliable dermatomal coverage, shorter duration of urinary catheterisation and earlier time of out-of-bed activity to enhance recovery after surgery.

Trial registration: The study was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry on 2 November 2022 (ChiCTR2200065325).