Transversus abdominis plane blockade in laparoscopic colorectal surgery: a double-blind randomized clinical trial

Abstract

We conclude that TAP blockade appears to be a safe intervention but confers no specific advantage following laparoscopic colorectal surgery.

Effect of Transversus Abdominis Plane Block on Postoperative Pain after Colorectal Surgery: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…Several clinical trials have reported the effect of TAP block in patients who underwent CRS [2,[9][10][11][12][13][14]; however, the results of these studies were conflicting. A clinical study conducted by Tikuisis et al [2] on 64 patients undergoing elective colonic resection for cancer reported that TAP block was effective in reducing postoperative pain and shortening the length of hospital stay.…”

“…TAP block has been performed in conventional open and laparoscopic CRS in several clinical trials [2,[9][10][11][12][13][14]; however, its effect has remained controversial. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis based on 7 clinical trials with 511 patients.…”

“…Sample sizes ranged from 40 to 147 patients. Among the included studies, 5 reported that TAP block was performed after the induction of anesthesia [2,10,[12][13][14], and 2 studies reported that TAP block was conducted at the end of surgery [9,11]. In addition, ultrasound-guided TAP block was conducted in 5 trials, and conventional TAP block was performed in 2 [9,11].…”

“…1; see www.karger.com/doi/10.1159/000487323 for all online suppl. material) [2,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. The characteristics of the included studies are shown in online supplementary Table 1.…”

“…Another clinical trial by Torup et al [13] found that TAP block did not relieve postoperative pain but reduced opioid use after laparoscopic hemicolectomy. However, 2 clinical trials suggested that TAP block appeared to be a safe intervention but provided no specific advantage in CRS [12,14]. This meta-analysis was conducted in order to determine whether TAP block is an effective approach for the relief of postoperative pain.…”