| One of the most effective methods of relieving acute pain is regional anesthesia. Intercostal block is a simple and effective method that provides analgesia after upper abdominal and thoracic surgery. With this method, adequate analgesia can be provided and an increase in the ability to cough and breathe deeply can be achieved. Especially useful in the early stages of trauma. It provides eight hours of analgesia. Since the drugs are used locally, the incidence of side effects that are important in morbidity is quite low [17]. In some publications, it has been stated that intercostal block provides a degree of pain control close to thoracic epidural analgesia [17]. Sheets et al. in their study, in which they compared intercostal nerve blockade and epidural analgesia, they reported that pain scores were the same in both groups and that the incidence of side effects was high in the group undergoing epidural analgesia (18). Osinowo et al. in his study, 0.5% of patients with jeans fracture stated that intercostal blockade with bupivacaine is very effective in pain control and can be administered safely (19). Hwang et al. with Britt et al. in two different studies, they noted that in jeans fractures caused by blunt thoracic trauma, the intercostal blockade method used for pain control increased the respiratory effectiveness of patients and significantly reduced the length of hospital stay (20,21). In our study, only the group of patients with intercostal blockade and the group of patients with iv analgesia+intercostal blockade looked at the early pain responses, and after the first 15 minutes, significant pain control was achieved in the group with iv analgesia+intercostal blockade compared to the other group (p<0.05). For this reason, we believe that intravenous analgesia and the combined use of intercostal blockade are more effective in pain control than other methods. |
