Continuous Pectoral Nerve Block Compared With Continuous Thoracic Paravertebral Block and Intravenous Opioid Analgesia for the Postoperative Analgesic Efficacy in Patients Undergoing Modified Radical Mastectomy: A Prospective Randomized Trial

A French nationwide survey on the practice of regional anaesthesia for breast cancer surgery

BACKGROUND

To assess the impact of recent recommendations concerning regional anaesthesia for breast cancer surgery, a nationwide practice survey was carried out.

METHODS

This cross-sectional electronic survey, conducted in 2021, collected answers from a panel of anaesthetists currently working in French practicing centres. It addressed the sets of techniques they practiced for every type of surgical procedure and their perceptions of the difficulties and risks associated with these techniques.

RESULTS

The practice of regional anaesthesia was generally high (70%), involving all the current types of blocks. Surgeon-done infiltration was popular for lumpectomy only. For the other current procedures, the pectoralis nerve blocks were preferred to the paravertebral block, which was favoured for mastectomies, when a lymph node harvesting was planned, or for immediate or delayed pedicle flap. Catheters were mostly used for mastectomies with pedicle flap. The erector spinae plane block was emergent. Whatever the type of block, regional anaesthesia was preferentially started before surgery. Despite some deviations such as the adjunction of unlabelled molecules, the practice fitted well with the European recommendations, but training and within-centre guidance lacked standardisation. For each block, actual practice, perceived difficulty and risk were inter-correlated, but paravertebral block - either practiced or not - was considered as more difficult and riskier to perform than any other.

CONCLUSIONS

These encouraging results do not dispense with the need to improve anaesthetic practices both in quantity and quality. Such improvement in the anatomic fit to the procedure and in the timing of blocks will also have to be considered.