Are peripheral nerve blocks effective in pain control of pediatric orthopedic tumor surgery?

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of ultrasound (US)-guided peripheral nerve blocks in postoperative analgesia after pediatric orthopedic tumor surgery.

Patients and methods: This retrospective study included 108 children (64 boys, 44 girls, mean age 10.23 years; range, 2 to 18 years) who were performed orthopedic tumor surgery under general anesthesia. The children were divided into two groups as those who were performed nerve block for postoperative pain control (group 1, n=54) and those who were performed intravenous analgesic (group 2, n=54). In group 1, nerve blocks were performed with bupivacaine 0.25%. In group 2, intraoperative acetaminophen 15 mg/kg was performed intravenously. Postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) scores, time to pain onset, nausea, vomiting, total analgesic consumption in 24 hours, and complications were recorded at first, second, sixth and 24th hours.

Results: Visual analog scale scores were higher in group 2 than group 1 at first, second, and sixth hours, but were not different at 24th hour. Mean time to pain onset was 10.2 hours in group 1 and 1.8 hours in group 2 (p<0.05). Mean time to pain onset and VAS values at first, second, sixth and 24th hours did not differ between nerve block types. Nausea and vomiting rates were not different between groups 1 and 2 (18.51% and 16.66%, respectively; p=0.4). Total analgesic consumption in 24 hours was higher in group 2 compared to group 1 (1.7 and 0.07 mg/kg, respectively; p<0.05).

Conclusion: Pain-free periods extending up to 10 hours provided by US-guided peripheral nerve blocks may help recovery while reducing postoperative analgesic use and their side effects.