Retrospective Evaluation of Fascial Plane Blocks in Cardiac Surgery With Median Sternotomy in a Tertiary Hospital

Background and aim: Cardiac surgery typically causes moderate to severe postoperative pain and discomfort. Inadequate pain management in the early postoperative period leads to pulmonary complications. The length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay and the hospital is typically prolonged. As a component of multimodal analgesia regimens, fascial plane blocks have become more popular. In our clinic, serratus anterior plane blocks (SAPB), pectoral nerve blocks (PECS I-II), and pectointercostal nerve fascial plane blocks (PIFB) are performed by ultrasonography. We wished to evaluate the postoperative visual pain scale, initial additional analgesic agent requirement time, extubation time, morbidity and mortality in patients who underwent open heart surgery with fascial plane blocks. Materials and methods: Forty-eight patients over 18 years who underwent open heart surgery with sternotomy between 01 September 2021 and 15 June 2022 were evaluated retrospectively. Only patients with chest wall blocks placed at the end of surgery were included in the study. In Group 1, the PECS II block was placed on the chest tube side and bilateral PIFBs were placed at the end of surgery in the operating room. In Group 2, SAPB was placed on the chest tube side and bilateral PIFBs were placed at the end of surgery. Data regarding patient demographics, anesthesia method applied, amount of opioid used intraoperatively, cardiopulmonary bypass time, anesthesia and surgery time, postoperative extubation time, mechanical ventilation time, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) of patients at rest and movement at 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th, 48th hours post-extubation, time to and type of first postoperative analgesic, postoperative complications, length of cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) stay and hospital length of stay were recorded from hospital records. Results: The data of a total of 46 patients (Group 1: PECS II block + PIFB, n=20; Group 2: SAPB+ PIFB, n=26) were analyzed retrospectively. There was no difference in demographic variables between the groups. Intraoperative opioid usage, operation time, Cardiopulmonary bypass time, postoperative mechanical ventilation time, extubation time, ICU discharge time, and length of hospital stay were not statistically different between the groups. The first rescue analgesic requirement time was longer in group 2 than in group 1 but not statistically significant (18.76±15.36 h vs 12.62±10.61 h, p=0.162). The post-extubation VAS scores at rest and movement at the 6th hour were significantly lower in group 2 than in group 1 (1.73±1.28 vs 3.15±2.10, respectively, p=0.02). Conclusion: In our study, the VAS scores at the 6th hour were lower in SAPB + PIFB group than in PECS II + PIFB group. As these blocks can be easy to apply, we thought these combinations could be an alternative for pain relief in cardiac surgery. Prospective randomized studies are needed with a large number of patients.