A narrative review of ultrasound-guided serratus anterior plane block

Ultrasound-guided serratus anterior plane block (SAPB) is located using ultrasound at the level of the midaxillary line and the fifth rib, and a certain amount of local anesthetics is injected either superficially or deeply into the serratus anterior muscle, blocking the third to sixth intercostal nerves, the long thoracic and thoracodorsal nerves. It is mainly used in breast surgeries, rib fractures and thoracotomy to manage the pain of the anterolateral chest wall. The surgery of anterolateral chest wall is often accompanied by severe postoperative pain, leading to postoperative infection, atelectasis and other complications, and prolonged hospitalization. However, effective pain management can reduce the occurrence of postoperative pulmonary complications, promote patients to get out of bed as soon as possible, and accelerate the recovery of patients. Recently, with the development of ultrasonic technology and equipment, SAPB has entered the era of visualization, further improving the safety and success rate of operations. SAPB, as a new technology of regional block, has a higher positioning accuracy, a higher success rate, lesser complications, and simpler and more effective postoperative analgesia effect. Compared with thoracic epidural analgesia and thoracic paravertebral block, SAPB has a good ultrasonic anatomical basis; thus, has a broad application prospect in clinics. In this paper, the SAPB in clinical application was reviewed.