Pectoral Nerve Block for Analgesia After Breast Augmentation

Overview

Breast augmentation is among the most popular surgical procedures performed in the world with approximately 1,773,584 performed in 2013. This surgical intervention generates important pains during postsurgical recovery. A multimodal analgesia, based on the recommendations is proposed to the patients .The pectoral nerve block is an innovative technique of locoregional anesthesia that has already been successfully used in breast surgery. Its realization is fast, simple, and it would be superior compared with a paravertebral block within the framework of mastectomy. The interest of this technique has never been assessed in esthetic breast surgery. The aim of this study is to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of the association of " Pecs blocks 1 and 2 " on pain intensity after breast augmentation surgery.

The investigators hypothesized that the "Pecs blocks 1 and 2" will provide a decrease of the maximal pain of the first 6 post-operative hours after prosthetic breast expansion. The pain will be assessed according to a numerical scale. This prospective, randomized, double blind study will include 92 patients successively during two years, randomized into two arms : Pecs group and Control group, which will respectively have the block, and no block. The rest of the anesthesic and surgical care will be identical. An intervention team (which will be different from the anesthesic team), will be alone with the patient for 15 minutes, and will realize or not the Pecs blocks according to the previous randomisation so that all caregivers taking in charge the patients as well as research observers will be blinded.