Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - National Cancer Institute - Department of Anesthesia and Pain Relief

Postoperative pain following abdominal surgeries is an important issue that affects postoperative recovery. Although pain after surgeries is multifactorial, pain relief increases patient satisfaction and comfort levels, reduces perioperative inflammation, promotes rehabilitation, shortens the length of hospitalization, and decreases the cost. In contrast, severe pain causes mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. Traditionally, epidural blocks and opioid consumption were used to alleviate pain; however, adverse effects such as respiratory depression, nausea, vomiting, and itching left patients unsatisfied and restricted their use. Therefore, multimodal analgesia and nonopioid systems were developed to enhance recovery after surgery. Recently, with the widespread use of ultrasonography, regional nerve blocks have become an important part of multimodal analgesia regimes, which show similar analgesic efficacy with favorable rates of side effects when compared to opioids. A range of ultrasound-guided abdominal wall blocks are administered to adults for different abdominal surgeries, such as the transversus abdominis plane (TAP), rectus sheath, and quadratus lumborum (QL). Due to its satisfactory somatic analgesia and ease of use, the QL still seems to be favored for use with abdominal surgeries

Issued also as CD