Postoperative analgesic effect of ultrasound-guided rectus sheath block and local anesthetic infiltration after laparoscopic cholecystectomy: Results of a prospective randomized controlled trial.

Introduction Even if laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) has lower invasiveness through small incisions compared with laparotomy, postoperative pain control is important. Methods This prospective, randomized, single-blinded, interventional, single-center study was conducted from December 2016 to March 2018 at the Shiga University of Medical Science Hospital in Japan. Enrolled patients were assigned to either a rectus sheath block (RSB) group or an infiltrative local anesthesia (LA) group. After LC, the RSB group received bilateral RSB with 10 mL of 0.375% ropivacaine and the LA group received subcutaneous and fascial injection with 10 mL of 0.75% ropivacaine at the umbilical wound. The primary endpoint was a visual analog scale (VAS) score on postoperative day (POD) 1. Results This study enrolled 62 patients (RSB group = 31, LA group = 31). On POD1, the mean VAS scores were 36.4 ± 18.9 and 29.4 ± 15.4 in the RSB group and LA groups, respectively, showing that the LA group tended to describe lesser postoperative pain than the RSB group (P = 0.062). Conclusions VAS scores on POD1 were not different between the groups. LC patients might obtain postoperative pain control via long-acting local analgesia.