[The analgesic efficacy of transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block]

The transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block is a novel approach for blocking the abdominal wall neural afferents via the bilateral lumbar triangles of Petit. It was described for the first time in 2007 by McDonnell et al. We applied the technique after the original methodology of the authors. We evaluated its analgesic efficacy first 24 postoperative hours of patients, undergoing to surgical and urological interventions. After induction of anesthesia, 20 ml of 0.375% levobupivacaine was deposited into the transversus abdominis neuro-fascial plane via the bilateral lumbar triangles of Petit. Each patient was evaluated by VAS in the postanesthesia care unit at the 2, 4, 6, 12 and 24 h postoperatively. Despite the results were more unsatisfactory than those of McDonnel, they were good. Our first impression is that the TAP block provided highly effective postoperative analgesia in the first 24 postoperative hours after major abdominal surgery.