Comparison of analgesic efficacy and safety of continuous epidural infusion versus local infiltration and systemic opioids in video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery decortication in pediatric empyema patients

INTRODUCTION: The stripping of the densely innervated and inflamed parietal pleura in empyema during video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) decortication can lead to significant pain and major postoperative respiratory compromise. Hence, we compared the analgesic efficacy of continuous epidural infusion versus local infiltration and systemic opioids in children undergoing VATS decortications. METHODOLOGY: Following ethics approval and informed consent, forty patients from 1 to 12 years of age were randomized into two groups, Group E (epidural) and Group L (local infiltration) after induction of anesthesia. In Group E, a thoracic epidural catheter was inserted between T4 and T8. A bolus dose of 0.5 ml/kg of 0.25% injection bupivacaine was given epidurally before incision. Postoperatively, the patients received epidural infusion with bupivacaine and fentanyl up to 48 h using an elastomeric balloon pump. In Group L, patients received local infiltration of bupivacaine (2 mg/kg) and lignocaine (5 mg/kg) at the port sites before incision and at the end of surgery. They also received injection tramadol 1 mg/kg intravenously TDS with thrice daily postoperatively. The pain scores (Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability/ Wong-Baker FACES scale) were assessed every 4 h on the 1(st) day and 6 h on the 2(nd) day. Injection diclofenac 1 mg/kg intravenous was used as a rescue analgesic for pain scores more than 4. Side effects such as nausea, vomiting, constipation, and motor blockade were noted. Quantitative and categorical data were assessed using t-test and Chi-square test, respectively. RESULTS: The pain scores were lower in the epidural group than in the local infiltration group at 0, 4, and 20 h postoperatively (P = 0.001, 0.01, and 0.038, respectively). Seventeen out of nineteen patients required rescue analgesia in the local infiltration group in the postoperative period as compared to five patients in the epidural group with a P value of 0.000081. CONCLUSION: Epidural analgesia can be considered as an effective modality of reducing pain in patients undergoing VATS decortication for empyema in pediatric patients.