Impact of Eliminating Local Anesthesia on Immediate Postoperative Analgesia in Pediatric Ambulatory Adenotonsillectomy

Our goal was to standardize intraoperative analgesic regimens for pediatric ambulatory tonsillectomy by eliminating local anesthetic use and to determine its impact on postoperative pain measures, while controlling for other factors. METHODS: We assembled a quality improvement team at an ambulatory surgery center. They introduced a standardized anesthetic protocol, involving American Society of Anesthesiologists Classification 1 and 2 patients undergoing adenotonsillectomy. Local anesthesia elimination was the project’s single intervention. We collected pre-intervention data (79 cases) from July 5 to September 17, 2019 and post-intervention data (59 cases) from September 25 to December 17, 2019. The intervention requested that surgeons eliminate the use of local anesthetics. The following outcomes measures were evaluated using statistical process control charts and Shewhart’s theory of variation: (1) maximum pain score in the post-anesthesia care unit, (2) total post-anesthesia care unit minutes, and (3) postoperative opioid rescue rate. RESULTS: No special cause variation signal was detected in any of the measures following the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that eliminating intraoperative local anesthetic use does not worsen postoperative pain control at our facility. The intervention eliminated the added expenses and possible risks associated with local anesthetic use. This series is unique in its standardization of anesthetic regimen in a high-volume ambulatory surgery center with the exception of local anesthesia practices. The study results may impact the standardized clinical protocol for pediatric ambulatory adenotonsillectomy at our institution and may hold relevance for other centers.