The efficacy of USG-guided transversus abdominis plane block for abdominal surgeries: A comparative study

Author(s): Srishti Chandrawanshi1, K. K. Arora2, Pooja Vaskle3, P. S. Tripathi4, Prem Krishnan V1
1Junior Resident, Department of Anaesthesiology, MGM Medical College Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
2Professor & Head, Department of Anaesthesiology, MGM Medical College Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
3Assistant Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, MGM Medical College Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
4Associate Professor, Department of Radiodiagnosis, MGM Medical College Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
Copyright © Srishti Chandrawanshi, K. K. Arora, Pooja Vaskle, P. S. Tripathi, Prem Krishnan V. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The study aimed to compare the analgesic efficacy of USG-guided versus landmark-based transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block using 0.25% bupivacaine in abdominal surgeries. A total of 100 patients undergoing elective abdominal surgery were included in the study, with 50 patients receiving USG-guided TAP block and the other 50 patients receiving landmark-guided TAP block. The patients were evaluated post-operatively for up to 24 hours for their VAS score, amount of analgesic required, and time for the first rescue analgesia. The results showed that the USG-guided TAP block group had a significant decrease in pain at 4 and 8 hours following surgery compared to the landmark group, with a lower total analgesic demand in the postoperative period. The study concluded that USG-guided TAP block is an efficient and safe addition to multimodal post-surgical analgesia compared to landmark-guided block. The study was conducted at the Department of Anesthesiology of the M. G. M. Medical College and M. Y. Hospital in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and was approved by the Institutional Ethical and Scientific Review Committee.

Keywords: USG-guided TAP block; Landmark-based TAP block; Postoperative analgesia; Abdominal surgery; Bupivacaine.