Newer regional analgesia interventions (fascial plane blocks) for breast surgeries: Review of literature

Surgical resection of the primary tumour with axillary dissection is one of the main modalities of breast cancer treatment. Regional blocks have been considered as one of the modalities for effective perioperative pain control. With the advent of ultrasound, newer interventions such as fascial plane blocks have been reported for perioperative analgesia in breast surgeries. Our aim is to review the literature for fascial plane blocks for analgesia in breast surgeries. The research question for initiating the review was 'What are the reported newer regional anaesthesia techniques (fascial plane blocks) for female patients undergoing breast surgery and their analgesic efficacy?.' The participants, intervention, comparisons, outcomes and study design were followed. Due to the paucity of similar studies and heterogeneity, the assessment of bias, systematic review or pooled analysis/meta-analysis was not feasible. Of the 989 manuscripts, the present review included 28 manuscripts inclusive of all types of published manuscripts. 15 manuscripts directly related to the administration of fascial plane blocks for breast surgery across all type of study designs and cases were reviewed for the utility of fascial plane blocks in breast surgeries. Interfascial blocks score over regional anaesthetic techniques such as paravertebral block as they have no risk of sympathetic blockade, intrathecal or epidural spread which may lead to haemodynamic instability and prolonged hospital stay. This review observed that no block effectively covers the whole of breast and axilla, thus a combination of blocks should be used depending on the site of incision and extent of surgical resection.