The Effect of Pectoral Blocks on Perioperative Pain in Gender Affirmation Top Surgery
Status:
Enrolling by invitation
Trial end date:
2021-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Despite recent advancements with regional and local anesthesia, postoperative pain continues
to be a major concern for patients undergoing breast surgery. Opioids, often in combination
with NSAIDS and/or gabapentioids, have been the main pharmacologic pain control strategy in
the postoperative period. The pectoral nerve block is a regional anesthetic technique, which
is effective at providing postoperative anesthesia in breast surgeries. However, this has
only been studied in oncologic-related breast operations. It is our aim to study the effects
of pectoral regional nerve blocks in patients undergoing breast reduction for gender
affirmation. The overall goal is to establish an effective pain control regimen utilizing
regional anesthetic techniques in this patient population. The specific objective of this
proposal is to evaluate the effectiveness of these blocks on perioperative and postoperative
analgesia. The hypothesis is that participants undergoing gender-affirmation breast surgery
who receive a pectoral nerve block will have less perioperative and postoperative pain as
well as reduced opioid consumption compared to those receiving a placebo. Participants who
are undergoing gender affirmation breast reduction surgery will be randomized to either
receive a preoperative nerve block or to receive a placebo. Intraoperative and postoperative
opioid requirements will be compared in addition to post-operative pain scores. Participants
will be asked to fill out a pain diary during their first week postoperatively. They will
also be asked to document if, and when, narcotic pain medication was required for pain
control. The two groups will be compared to determine if there was any difference in pain
scores as well as narcotic medication requirements.