Background: The postsurgical management of patients with ankylosing spondylitis is often only focused on the incision pain, and the pain caused by abdominal skin traction is paid little attention.
Objectives: To explore the effectiveness of ultrasound-guided transversus abdominis plane block (TAPB) in treating abdominal skin tension pain after kyphosis surgery.
Study design: Randomized controlled trial.
Setting: This prospective study consecutively enrolled patients scheduled to undergo kyphosis correction surgery at the Department of Orthopedics of Xijing Hospital from March 2021 to December 2021.
Methods: The patients were randomized 1:1 to the TAPB and control groups. The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for abdominal pain, Bruggrmann Comfort Scale (BCS), abdominal skin tension blisters, bed rest duration, length of hospitalization, and the use of patient-controlled analgesia pumps (PCAPs) were compared. The primary endpoint was pain alleviation at 24 hours after surgery.
Results: Thirty-one patients were enrolled, without differences between the 2 groups regarding age, body mass index, preoperative kyphosis severity, operation duration, and blood loss. The TAPB group (n = 16) had lower abdominal VAS scores than the control group (n = 15) at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12 hours after surgery (P < 0.05). The TAPB group had higher BCS scores than the control group at 4, 6, 8, and 12 hours after surgery (P < 0.05). The TAPB group used PCAPs less frequently than the control group after surgery (P < 0.001). The incidence of tension blisters in the TAPB group was numerically lower than that of the control group, but the difference was not statistically significant (18.8% vs 33.3%, P > 0.05).
Limitations: The sample size of this study is small and a single-center study, there might be data bias.
Conclusions: In the first 24 hours after severe kyphosis surgery, TAPB can reduce the pain from abdominal skin tension and increase the comfort scores, but its effects on tension blisters remain to be further studied.
Keywords: Bruggrmann comfort scale; abdominal skin pain; abdominal skin traction; anesthesia; tension blisters; transversus abdominis plane block; visual analog scale; Kyphosis.