Ultrasound-guided pectoral nerve block for pain control after breast augmentation: a randomized clinical study

The efficacy of pectoral nerve block for pain control after breast augmentation: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies

“…Initially, 292 publications were searched and 5 RCTs were ultimately included in the meta-analysis. [5,15–17,23]…”

“…The anesthetics for pectoral nerve block were 0.25% bupivacaine or 3.75 mg/mL ropivacaine. Among the 5 RCTs, 4 studies reported pain scores at 1 hour, [15][16][17]23] reported maximal pain scores at 1 to 6 hours and maximal pain scores at 6 to 24 hours, [5,15,17,23] 3 studies reported rescue analgesic, [15,17,23] as well as 2 studies reported nausea and vomiting. [15,17] Jadad scores of the 5 eligible studies varied from 4 to 5, and thus these studies were thought to have high quality.…”

“…[14] Several studies have explored the efficacy of pectoral nerves block for pain control after breast augmentation, but the results are conflicting. [5,[15][16][17] Therefore, this meta-analysis aims to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of pectoral nerves block for breast augmentation.…”

“…Figure1shows the flow chart for the selection process and detail identification. Initially, 292 publications were searched and 5 RCTs were ultimately included in the meta-analysis [5,[15][16][17]23]. Table1demonstrates the baseline characteristics of 5 eligible RCTs.…”

Pectoral Nerve Blocks for Breast Augmentation Surgery: Comment

“…In addition, they found that PECS I block is not superior to sham block for providing postoperative pain relief when the patients were made their own control too for one side versus the other side. 3 In contrast to these studies, a study released in December 2020 by Ciftci et al 4 compared the preoperative versus postoperative administration of PECS I block in breast augmentation and concluded that preoperative PECS I was superior to postoperative PECS I and the control group. Furthermore, PECS blocks were performed either preoperatively or intraoperatively (after induction of general anesthesia but before surgery) in many studies according to a meta-analysis by Hussain et al 5 involving various breast cancer procedures.…”