Clinical analgesic efficacy of pectoral nerve block in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, and more than half of breast surgery patients experience severe acute postoperative pain. This meta-analysis is designed to examine the clinical analgesic efficacy of Pecs block in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery. Methods: An electronic literature search of the Library of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases was conducted to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from inception to November 2018. These RCTs compared the effect of Pecs block in combination with general anesthesia (GA) to GA alone in mastectomy surgery. Pain scores, intraoperative and postoperative opioid consumption, time to first request for analgesia, and incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting were analyzed. Results: Thirteen RCTs with 940 patients were included in our analysis. The use of Pecs block significantly reduced pain scores in the postanesthesia care unit (weighted mean difference [WMD] = āˆ’1.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], āˆ’2.90 to āˆ’0.91; Pā€Š
Source: Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Research Article: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Source Type: research