Serratus Plane Versus Paravertebral Nerve Blocks for Breast Surgery

NCT03860974 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE4 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 100

Last updated 2022-09-21

Study results available
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Summary

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.

Conditions

  • Breast Surgery

Interventions

DRUG

Serratus Plane block (single injection)

A single-injection serratus plane block will be administered using ropivacaine 0.5% with epinephrine 1:200,000-400,000 (20 mL of local anesthetic for unilateral surgery; 16 mL of local anesthetic each side for bilateral surgery).

DRUG

Paravertebral block (single injection)

Single injection paravertebral blocks will be administered using ropivacaine 0.5% with epinephrine 1:200,000-400,000 (20 mL for unilateral surgery; 16 mL each side for bilateral surgery). For paravertebral blocks without axillary involvement, this will be at the T3 and T5 levels. For paravertebral blocks with axillary involvement, this will be at the T2 and T4 levels. For unilateral PVBs, 10 mL of local anesthetic will be injected per level. For bilateral paravertebral blocks, 8 mL of local anesthetic will be injected per level.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Brian M Ilfeld, MD, MS · UCSD Medical Center

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-05-09
Primary Completion
2021-02-12
Completion
2021-02-13
FDA Drug
Yes

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03860974 on ClinicalTrials.gov