Three-step tumescent local anesthesia technique for inguinal hernia repair

New Frontiers in Wide-Awake Surgery

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this article, the participant should be able to: 1. Explain the most important benefits of wide-awake surgery to patients. 2. Tumesce large parts of the body with minimal pain local anesthesia injection technique to eliminate the need for sedation for many operations. 3. Apply tourniquet-free surgery to upper and lower limb operations to avoid the sedation required to tolerate tourniquet pain. 4. Move many procedures out of the main operating room to minor procedure rooms with no increase in infection rates to decrease unnecessary cost and solid waste in surgery.

SUMMARY

Three disruptive innovations are changing the landscape of surgery: (1) minimally painful injection of large-volume, low-concentration tumescent local anesthesia eliminates the need for sedation for many procedures over the entire body; (2) epinephrine vasoconstriction in tumescent local anesthesia is a good alternative to the tourniquet and proximal nerve blocks in extremity surgery (sedation for tourniquet pain is no longer required for many procedures); and (3) evidence-based sterility and the elimination of sedation enable many larger procedures to move out of the main operating room into minor procedure rooms with no increase in infection rates. This continuing medical education article explores some of the new frontiers in which these changes affect surgery all over the body.

The efficacy of ultrasound-guided triple nerve block (ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric, and genitofemoral) versus unilateral subarachnoid block for inguinal hernia surgery in adults: a randomized controlled trial

INTRODUCTION

The present study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of ultrasound-guided triple nerve block (ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric, and genitofemoral) versus unilateral subarachnoid block for adult male patients undergoing unilateral inguinal hernia surgery.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Sixty ASA I-III adult male patients > 18 years old, scheduled for unilateral inguinal hernia surgery were randomly allocated into 2 groups of 30 patients each. In Group A ( n = 30) the patients received ultrasound-guided nerve block (ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric, and genitofemoral), and in Group B ( n = 30) the patients received unilateral subarachnoid block. The primary outcome was to assess postoperative analgesic efficacy (visual analogue scale [VAS] scores at rest and during coughing/ambulation). The secondary outcomes were time to first rescue analgesia with morphine, the total dose of morphine used as rescue analgesia, urinary retention, time to first micturition, time to first unassisted walking, and time to discharge from the surgical recovery room.

RESULTS

The mean pain scores at 1, 2, 4, and 6 hours during rest and during coughing/ambulation were significantly lower in Group A when compared to patients in Group B ( P < 0.001). There was no requirement for rescue analgesic opioids in Group A ( P < 0.001). Mean time to first micturition and mobilization occurred earlier in Group A, leading to early discharge from the recovery room ( P < 0.001). No major side effects were observed in any of the study groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Ultrasound-guided triple nerve block technique can be used as a sole anaesthetic technique for inguinal hernia surgery because it not only provides optimal anaesthesia intra-operatively but also has a favourable analgesic and opioid-sparing efficacy in the early postoperative period with minimal adverse effects.