Bilateral Erector Spinae Blocks Decrease Perioperative Opioid Use After Pediatric Cardiac Surgery

The present study examined the feasibility and efficacy of continuous bilateral erector spinae blocks for post-sternotomy pain in pediatric cardiac surgery.

Prospective cohort study; patients were retrospectively matched 1:2 to control patients. Conditional logistic regression was used to compare dichotomous outcomes, and generalized linear models were used for continuous measures, both accounting for clusters.

Quaternary children's hospital, university setting.

The study comprised 10 children ages five-to-17 years undergoing elective cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass.

Ultrasound-guided bilateral erector spinae blocks at the conclusion of the cardiac surgical procedure, with postoperative infusion of ropivacaine until chest tube removal. Postoperative management otherwise followed standardized guidelines.

Patient characteristics were similar in the two groups. The median time to completion of the bilateral blocks was 16.0 minutes (interquartile range [IQR] 14.8-19.3), and no major adverse events were identified. Pain scores were low in both groups. Postoperative opioid use at 48 hours, rendered as oral morphine equivalents, was significantly reduced in the patients receiving the blocks. Cluster-adjusted squared-root-transformed means ± standard error were 0.89 ± 0.06 mg/kg for patients receiving the blocks versus 1.05 ± 0.06 mg/kg for control patients (p = 0.04; raw medians 0.81 [IQR 0.41-1.04] v 1.10 [IQR 0.78-1.35] mg/kg, respectively). There were no differences in recovery metrics, length of stay, or complications.

Bilateral erector spinae blocks were associated with a reduction in opioid use in the first 48 hours after pediatric cardiac surgery compared with a matched cohort from the enhanced recovery program. Larger studies are needed to determine whether this can result in an improvement in recovery and patient satisfaction.