Laparoscopic-guided abdominal wall nerve blocks in the pediatric population: a novel technique with comparison to ultrasound-guided blocks and local wound infiltration alone.

Background: Abdominal wall nerve blocks have been gaining popularity for the treatment of perioperative pain in children. Our aim was to compare a technique of surgeon-performed, laparoscopic abdominal wall nerve blocks to anesthesia-placed, ultrasound-guided abdominal wall nerve blocks and the current standard of local wound infiltration.

Methods: After institutional review board approval was obtained, a retrospective chart review was performed of pediatric patients treated at a single institution during a 2-year period. Statistics were calculated using analysis of variance with post-hoc Bonferonni t tests for pair-wise comparisons.

Results: Included in this study were 380 patients who received ultrasound-guided abdominal wall nerve blocks (n = 125), laparoscopic-guided abdominal wall nerve blocks (n = 88), and local wound infiltration (n = 117). Groups were well matched for age, sex, and weight. There was no significant difference in pain scores within the first 8 hours or narcotic usage between groups. Local wound infiltration demonstrated the shortest overall time required to perform (P < .0001). Patients who received a surgeon-performed abdominal wall nerve block demonstrated a shorter duration of hospital stay when compared to the other groups (P = .02).

Conclusion: Our study has demonstrated that laparoscopic-guided abdominal wall nerve blocks show similar efficacy to ultrasound-guided nerve blocks performed by pain management physicians without increasing time in the operating room.