Regional Analgesia for Cesarean Delivery: A Narrative Review Toward Enhancing Outcomes in Parturients

INTRODUCTION: With the current surge on peripheral nerve blocks in post-cesarean pain management and the historical lack of unequivocal evidence supporting its universal use, this review intended to re-examine the extended scope of literature on regional anesthesia and postoperative analgesia in low-transverse cesarean section. METHODS: A literature search was conducted up to April 2023 using PubMed to identify articles relevant to our search words “cesarean section”, “neuraxial morphine”, “post-cesarean analgesia”, as well as the name of each individual nerve block. The literature search was ultimately narrowed to systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials published between 2012 and 2023. We define, describe, and discuss the evidence surrounding each individual regional anesthetic technique in the presence and absence of intrathecal morphine, which is used as the gold standard when appropriate. RESULTS: In the absence of neuraxial morphine, all regional anesthetic techniques have some level of analgesic benefit in the post-cesarean analgesia. Transversus Abdominis Plane blocks continue to have the most studies in their use. Newer fascia plane blocks including the anterior Quadratus Lumborum, and Erector Spinae Plane blocks provide significant analgesia. In addition, direct comparison among peripheral nerve blocks consistently favors the more proximal, centralized techniques. Conversely, in the presence of neuraxial morphine, no peripheral anesthetic technique has reliably and reproducibly demonstrated an added analgesic benefit regardless of the peripheral nerve block technique or location of local anesthetic injection in the post-cesarean population. CONCLUSION: Neuraxial morphine continues to be the gold standard for post-cesarean section analgesia, the benefit of additional single injection regional anesthetic is currently not evidence supported. In cases where neuraxial opioids have not or cannot be given, there is overwhelming evidence that regional anesthetic techniques improve post-cesarean section analgesia and decrease post-operative opioid consumption. Even though there is no consensus on the optimal peripheral nerve block, emerging evidence suggests more centralized abdominal fascia plane block trends towards better analgesia.