Prospective Comparative Study Between Ultrasound-guided Continuous Erector Spinae Plane Block and the Use of Intravenous Patient Controlled Analgesia for Management of Pain in Patients With Multiple Fracture Ribs

Overview

Rib fractures are common after blunt injury to the chest. Present in 10% of blunt trauma admissions. Pain associated with rib fractures can result in compromise of pulmonary function causing hypoxaemia or pneumonia, which may require mechanical ventilation. Adequate relief of rib fracture pain allows the patient to breathe deeply, avoid intubation and clear secretions effectively, which will minimise the pulmonary complications . Pain control is essential for not only primary pain relief but also preventing secondary complications such as atelectasis or pneumonia as well as the transition to chronic pain. Accordingly, further steps are now being taken from the conventional pain control medication and techniques by the introduction of more aggressive pain control measures .Traditional regional anaesthesia (RA) techniques such as paravertebral, intercostal and epidurals injections are resource-intensive and time-consuming, limited to single dermatomes; provide incomplete analgesia of the hemithorax; and are associated with significant potential complications such as local anaesthetic intoxication, vasovagal syncope, hemi diaphragmatic paresis and pneumothorax . The erector spinae plane block (ESPB) is a novel fascial plane block. Its use has been documented in numerous instances with positive outcomes in controlling acute as well as chronic pain. The most popular technique was the continuous infusion through a catheter . Fascial plane blocks that can be used for rib fracture pain management are serratus anterior plane block, erector spinae plane block and the rhomboid intercostal and subserratus (RISS) block. The procedure is more simple to use with a lower incidence of complications ,less time consuming , more superficial than others so it can be used in patients on anticoagulant therapy . Providing analgesia for patients with rib fractures continues to be a management challenge. Therefore, further studies are needed comparing between different techniques to prove their efficacy in pain management