[Multi-injection thoracic paravertebral anesthesia during breast cancer operations]

Abstract

Radical and/or reconstructive operations on the breast are a common surgical procedure. Despite treatment advances, this surgical intervention is frequently associated with postoperative pain, nausea, vomiting. When used during breast cancer operations, multi-injection thoracic paravertebral anesthesia (TPVA) has the potential that is necessary for the long-term preventive treatment of pain with fewer numbers of complications. The authors compared TPVA with general anesthesia in 180 patients (with the morphologically verified diagnosis of breast cancer) when radical and/or reconstructive operations were performed on the breast. According to the type of anesthesia, the patients were randomly divided into 2 groups with 90 persons in each: (1) those undergoing TPVA with intravenous sedation; (2) those who were given the traditional multicomponent general anesthesia. Postoperative pain was much less in the TPVA group following 1, 3, 6, and 24 hours (p < 0.01) at rest and in motion. There is evidence suggesting that it is just the procedure that may become a main alternative to the traditional general anesthesia in a clinic that has sufficient experience with regional anesthesia and appropriate equipment, with minimum complications and a qualitatively better period of recovery.