Serratus Plane Versus Paravertebral Nerve Blocks for Breast Surgery

Completed · Phase 4

Conditions studied: Breast Surgery

In brief

Following painful surgical procedures of the breast, postoperative analgesia is often provided with a paravertebral nerve block (PVB). For intense, but shorter-duration acute pain, a single-injection of local anesthetic is used with a duration of approximately 12 hours. Recently an alternative block has been reported: the serratus plane block.2 The theoretical benefits include ease of administration since it is a plane superficial to the PVB and therefore easier to identify and target with ultrasound (therefore increasing success rate); and an increased safety margin as there are fewer anatomic structures in the immediate area which could be injured with the needle; and, the target plane is much further from the intrathecal/epidural space relative to the PVB, therefore leakage of cerebrospinal fluid or injury to the spinal cord are less likely with the serratus compared to the PVB.3 There are, therefore, multiple theoretical reasons to prefer the serratus over the PVB. Unfortunately, it remains unknown if the analgesia provided by this new technique is comparable to that provided with the PVB.4 The investigators therefore propose to compare these two techniques with a randomized, subject-masked, active-controlled, parallel-arm clinical trial.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03860974

Run by

University of California, San Diego

People needed

100

Starts

2019-05-09

Expected to finish

2021-02-13

Last updated by the study team

2022-09-21

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• undergoing unilateral or bilateral breast surgery with at least moderate postoperative pain anticipated
• analgesic plan includes a single-injection peripheral nerve block(s)
• age 18 years or older

You may not qualify if…

• morbid obesity as defined by a body mass index > 40 (BMI=weight in kg / [height in meters]2)
• renal insufficiency (preoperative creatinine > 1.5 mg/dL)
• chronic opioid use (daily use within the 2 weeks prior to surgery and duration of use > 4 weeks)
• history of opioid abuse
• any comorbidity which results in moderate or severe functional limitation inability to communicate with the investigators or hospital staff
• pregnancy
• planned regional analgesic with perineural catheter placement
• incarceration

Where it is running

• University California San Diego — San Diego, California, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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