The Postoperative Analgesic Effect of Transversus Abdominis Plane Block in Inguinal Hernia Repair: A Randomized Controlled Study.

Aim: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of preincisional (preemptive) Transversus Abdominis Plane (TAP) block on perioperative opioid consumption, hemodynamic parameters and postoperative rescue anal¬gesic consumption in patients undergoing inguinal hernia repair. Methods: 60 adult patients were included in this prospective randomized controlled study. The patients were divided into two groups: those who received conventional systemic analgesia (Group C) and those who received US-guided TAP block (Group TAP). By ultrasonography, normal saline (1 mL) was injected between the internal oblique and transverse abdominal muscles, and after separation was observed, 20 mL of 0.25% bupivacaine was administered. Postoperatively, 1mg/kg Tramadol HCl was given to all patients as a rescue analgesic. Perioperative hemodynamic data, perioperative total amount of remifentanil consumption amount, postoperative Visual Ana¬logue Scale (VAS) scores, starting time and number of rescue analgesics were recorded. Results: There was no difference in demographic data. Intraoperative remifentanil dose, VAS values at all times, need for rescue analgesics and the number of applications were significantly lower in Group TAP than in Group C (p=0.012, p 0.05). Conclusions: We concluded that preincisional TAP block is a safe and effective analgesia technique for postoper¬ative pain control in patients undergoing unilateral inguinal hernia repair and our findings should be supported by advanced controlled randomized studies.