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CompletedNCT03879148Updated May 7, 2019

Erector Spinae Plane Block for Postoperative Analgesia Management Following Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery

An interventional study of Erector spinae plane block in Lung Cancer, sponsored by Medipol University. Completed at 1 site in Turkey. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-05-07.

Sponsored by Medipol University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 6 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Sep 2018, registered Mar 2019).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
60
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has recently been evaluated as the standard surgical procedure for lung surgery. Although VATS is less painful than thoracotomy, patients may feel severe pain during the first hours at postoperative period. Analgesia management is very important for these patients in postoperative period since insufficient analgesia can cause pulmonary complications such as atelectasis, pneumonia and increased oxygen consumption. The ultrasound (US) guided erector spina plane (ESP) block is a novel interfacial plan block defined by Forero et al. at 2016. ESP block provides thoracic analgesia at T5 level and abdominal analgesia at T7-9 level. Visualization of sonoanatomy with US is easy, and the spread of local anesthesic agents can be easily seen under the erector spinae muscle. Thus, analgesia occurs in several dermatomes with cephalad-caudad way. In the literature, there is not still any randomized study evaluating ESP block efficiency for postoperative analgesia management after VATS. The aim of this study is to evaluate US-guided ESP block for postoperative analgesia management after VATS.

Read the detailed description

Postoperative pain after thoracic surgery which is attributed to muscle incision, rib retraction, and intercostal nerve damage may be severe such a degree that it may cause pulmonary complications such as atelectasis, pneumonia and increased oxygen consumption. Because video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has some advantages over open thoracotomy such as reduced pain, shoulder dysfunction, early pulmonary impairment, rapid recovery, short hospital stay and low complication risk, it has recently been evaluated as the standard surgical procedure for lung surgery. Although VATS is a less painful procedure than open thoracotomy, patients may still feel severe pain during the first hours at postoperative period. As thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) is the gold standard analgesic technique after thoracotomy, it is also being used for analgesia management following VATS. Hence TEA has some difficulties in administration and side effects, minimally invasive analgesic techniques are supported for pain management in patients who underwent VATS. The gold standard minimal invasive analgesic technique for VATS is still be questioned. Thoracic paravertebral block (TPVB) has been evaluated as the first step regional analgesia technique after VATS. However, its administration is difficult because of its anatomical proximity to important structures such as the pleura and central neuro-axial system. Therefore it may cause complications such as pneumothorax and neuro-axial injury. The ultrasound (US) guided erector spina plane block (ESPB) - a novel interfacial plan block defined by Forero et al. in 2016 - has the advantage of being away from the pleural and neurological structures, thus the risk of complications is lower. In the literature, case reports about the analgesic effect of ESPB after thoracotomy and VATS has been increasing. However there is no randomized study for VATS yet. In this study, investigators aimed to evaluate the efficacy of US-guided ESPB for postoperative analgesia management following VATS.

02

Conditions studied

  • Lung Cancer

Keywords

  • Erector spinae plane block
  • Video assisted thoracic surgery
  • Postoperative analgesia
03

In context

Lead sponsor

Medipol University is the lead sponsor of 311 studies on the registry; 86 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • Clinical diagnosis of primary lung carcinoma
  • Must be undergoing VATS lobectomy under general anesthesia
  • Must be in American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification I-II status

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of bleeding diathesis,
  • History of receiving anticoagulant treatment,
  • History of local anesthetics or opioid allergy,
  • Skin infection at the site of the needle puncture,
  • Presence of pregnancy or lactation, and
  • Patients who did not accept the procedure
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
60 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Erector spinae plane block (Group I)

    The ultrasound (US) guided ESPB was performed under aseptic conditions at the level of T5 vertebrae using the GE Vivid Q® US device. A high frequency 12 MHz linear US probe was covered with a sterile sheath and placed longitudinally 2-3 cm lateral to the T5 transvers process. After visualizing trapezius, rhomboid major, erector spinae muscles superficial to the hyperechoic transverse process shadow respectively, a 22-gauge 50 mm block needle (Braun Stimuplex Ultra 360, Germany) was inserted in a cephalad to caudad direction. Once the needle tip had been placed within the interfacial plane below the erector spinae muscle, 2 mL of saline were injected to confirm the proper injection site, and then a 20 mL dose of 0.25% bupivacaine was injected. Patients received fentanyl via a patient controlled analgesia (PCA) device with a protocol of 2 mL (10 µg/mL) bolus without an infusion dose, 20 min lockout time and 4 hour limit

    Other: Erector spinae plane block

  • No intervention
    Control group (Group II)

    Patients in control group only received fentanyl via a patient controlled analgesia (PCA) device with a protocol of 2 mL (10 µg/mL) bolus without an infusion dose, 20 min lockout time and 4 hour limit.

Interventions

  • OtherErector spinae plane block

    Erector spinae plane block was performed to the patients under aseptic conditions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Postoperative opioid consumption change is being assessed

    All patients received fentanyl via a patient controlled analgesia (PCA) device.

    Time frame: Postoperative 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 24 hours

Secondary outcomes

  1. Postoperative pain scores (Visual analoge score-VAS) is being assessed

    0 = no pain, 10 = the most severe pain felt

    Time frame: Postoperative 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 24 hours

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Istanbul Medipol University Hospital
    Istanbul, Bagcilar 34070, Turkey
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References and documents

Publications

  • Forero M, Adhikary SD, Lopez H, Tsui C, Chin KJ. The Erector Spinae Plane Block: A Novel Analgesic Technique in Thoracic Neuropathic Pain. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2016 Sep-Oct;41(5):621-7. doi: 10.1097/AAP.0000000000000451. PubMed 27501016 ↗
  • Gurkan Y, Aksu C, Kus A, Yorukoglu UH, Kilic CT. Ultrasound guided erector spinae plane block reduces postoperative opioid consumption following breast surgery: A randomized controlled study. J Clin Anesth. 2018 Nov;50:65-68. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinane.2018.06.033. Epub 2018 Jul 2. PubMed 29980005 ↗
  • Nagaraja PS, Ragavendran S, Singh NG, Asai O, Bhavya G, Manjunath N, Rajesh K. Comparison of continuous thoracic epidural analgesia with bilateral erector spinae plane block for perioperative pain management in cardiac surgery. Ann Card Anaesth. 2018 Jul-Sep;21(3):323-327. doi: 10.4103/aca.ACA_16_18. PubMed 30052229 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — individual participant data (IPD) will not be shared

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 7, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03879148
Lead sponsor
Medipol University
Responsible party
Bahadir Ciftci (Principal Investigator, Medipol University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Mar 18, 2019
Start date
Sep 1, 2018
Primary completion
Apr 28, 2019
Completion
Apr 30, 2019
Last update
May 7, 2019

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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