Effects of transversus abdominis plane block versus quadratus lumborum block on postoperative analgesia: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: Trunk block technique has been used in postoperative analgesia for patients undergoing surgery, specifically, transversus abdominis plane block (TAPB) and quadratus lumborum block (QLB) have been proved effective. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the effects of TAPB and QLB in postoperative analgesia. METHODS: Online databases, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library (&Trail), Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang and QVIP were applied to collect the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from inception to Dec. 9th, 2019. Twenty-two studies were finally included containing 777 patients in the TAPB group and 783 cases in QLB group. RCTs comparing TAPB and QLB in postoperative analgesia were included in this meta-analysis. The indicators including total analgesia consumption postoperatively, operative time, duration of anesthesia, visual analogue scale (VAS) score at 24 h postoperatively, duration of postoperative analgesia, the number of patients requiring analgesia postoperatively and adverse reactions were analyzed. RESULTS: our findings showed that morphine consumption (mg) (WMD = 3.893, 95%CI: 2.053 to 5.733, P < 0.001), fentanyl consumption (μg) (WMD = 23.815, 95%CI: 15.521 to 32.109, P < 0.001), VAS score at 24 h postoperatively (WMD = 0.459, 95%CI: 0.118 to 0.801, P = 0.008), the number of patients requiring analgesia postoperatively (WMD = 3.893, 95%CI: 2.053 to 5.733, P < 0.001), and the incidence of dizziness (WMD = 2.691, 95%CI: 1.653 to 4.382, P < 0.001) in TAPB group were higher than in QLB group. CONCLUSIONS: QLB is superior to TAPB in reducing morphine consumption, fentanyl consumption, VAS score at 24 h postoperatively, the number of patients requiring analgesia postoperatively, and the incidence of dizziness.