Ultrasound-guided Transmuscular Quadratus Lumborum Block for Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy

Overview

Patients undergoing percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL) suffer from acute postoperative pain, despite a multimodal analgesic regime. We hypothesize that active (ropivacaine) transmuscular quadratus lumborum (TQL) block will significantly reduce postoperative opioid consumption and pain following PNL operation compared with placebo (saline) TQL block. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of ultrasound-guided (USG) TQL block concurrent with a multimodal analgesic regime compared to the multimodal analgesic regime alone (and placebo TQL block) in a randomized and placebo controlled design.

Patients undergoing percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL) suffer from acute postoperative pain, despite a multimodal analgesic regime, and the patients receive considerable amounts of long lasting opioids. For the patients this greatly increase the risk of experiencing the adverse effects of opioids. The ultrasound-guided (USG) transmuscular quadratus lumborum (TQL) block is a single dosage of local anesthetic (LA) delivered in the plane between the psoas major muscle and the quadratus lumborum muscle. LA spreads cephalad into the thoracic paravertebral space to reach the somatic ventral rami (intercostal nerves) and the thoracic sympathetic trunk. The TQL block can reduce visceral pain and pain originating from the abdominal wall and has an expected duration of analgesic efficacy of 24 hours. The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy of the active USG TQL block together with the multimodal analgesic regime to reduce postoperative opioid consumption and pain compared to placebo USG TQL block and the multimodal analgesic regime in a randomized and placebo controlled design.