High Thoracic Erector Spinae Plane Block for Arthroscopic Shoulder Surgery: A Randomized Prospective Double-Blind Study

Objective. Moderate to severe pain may occur following arthroscopic shoulder surgery. An erector spinae plane block (ESPB) may be used for painful conditions of the shoulder. The primary hypothesis of this trial is that ultrasound-guided ESPB would provide effective analgesia by reducing opioid consumption. The secondary hypothesis is that ESPB would result in low pain scores and reduce the use of rescue analgesia. Design. Randomized prospective double-blind study. Setting. Academic university hospital. Subjects. Sixty patients aged between 18 and 65 years designated as American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class I or II who underwent unilateral arthroscopic shoulder surgery under general anesthesia were included in the study. Methods. Patients were equally divided into two groups-either the ESPB group (n=30) or the sham block group (n=30). ESPB was performed with 30 mL 0.25% bupivacaine at the T2 level in the ESPB group and sham block with 30 mL saline at the T2 level in the sham block group. Twenty minutes before the end of the operation, 100 mg tramadol was administered intravenously to the patients. Intravenous ibuprofen 400 mg 3 x 1 was ordered for the patients during the postoperative period. A patient control analgesia device including a dose of 10 mu g/mL fentanyl was connected to the patients. Results. There were no statistical differences between groups in terms of demographical data. Postoperative fentanyl consumption was significantly lower in the ESPB group than in the sham block group (96.66 mu g +/- 105.57 mu g and 230 mu g +/- 247.17 mu g, respectively) (P=0.009). The need for rescue analgesia was significantly lower in the ESPB group than in the sham block group (26.66 mg +/- 35.43 mg and 48.5 mg +/- 35.45 mg, respectively) (P=0.020). Overall, the visual analog scale scores were significantly lower in the ESPB group than in the sham block group. Conclusions. ESPB may provide effective analgesia treatment following arthroscopic shoulder surgery.