Transversus abdominis plane block or intravenous lignocaine in open prostate surgery: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Transversus abdominis plane block (TAP) and intravenous lignocaine are two analgesic techniques frequently used after abdominal surgery. We hypothesized that these two techniques improve post-operative analgesia after open prostate surgery and sought to compare their efficacy on immediate post-operative outcome after open prostate surgery.

METHODS: After ethics committee approval, 101 patients were enrolled in this prospective study and randomly allocated to receive bilateral ultrasound-guided TAP (n = 34), intravenous lignocaine (n = 33) or placebo (n = 34). In addition, intravenous paracetamol was given every 6 h. The primary endpoint was the cumulative opioid consumption during the first 48 post-operative hours (median[IQR]). Secondary endpoints included pain scores at rest and upon coughing, need for rescue tramadol, incidence of post-operative nausea and vomiting (PONV), recovery of bowel function and incidence of bladder catheter-related discomfort.

RESULTS: Cumulative piritramide consumption after 48 h was 28 [23] mg in the control group, 21 [29] mg in the TAP group and 21 [31] mg in the lignocaine group (P = 0.065). There was no significant difference in post-operative pain scores between groups. The proportions of patients requiring rescue tramadol, experiencing PONV or bladder catheter-related discomfort were similar in each group. Recovery of bowel function was also similar in the three groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that TAP block and intravenous lignocaine do not improve the post-operative analgesia provided by systematic administration of paracetamol after open prostatectomy.