Comparison of Local Anesthetic Infiltration and Different Fascial Plane Blocks in Inguinal Hernia Repair

Inguinal hernia repair, one of the most common operations, causes moderate to severe postoperative pain. The postoperative pain delays patients' recovery and return to daily life, increases the rate of readmission to the hospital, and can lead to persistent postoperative pain.Procedure-specific postoperative pain management (PROSPECT) recommendations for optimal pain management have been recently updated. Accordingly, in addition to preoperative or intraoperative paracetamol and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesics, local anesthetic infiltration and/or regional analgesia techniques (ilio-inguinal nerve blocks or TAP block) with rescue opioids are recommended. Also, it has been reported that further research is needed on new regional techniques (other fascial plane blocks etc).It has been shown that QLB potentially results in extensive sensory blockade (T7-12), and in cadaver studies, the iliohypogastric and ilioinguinal nerves are constantly involved. In addition, there are studies suggesting that it provides much longer analgesia than TAP block. There are few studies on its efficacy in inguinal hernia repair that are in pediatric cases or performed in addition to central blocks. It is hypothesized that QLB may provide better and longer analgesia, may increase the quality of recovery and reduce the development of resistant chronic pain, compared to other regional methods such as local infiltration or TAP block, that proven effectiveness.

Inclusion criteria

• Patients who will undergo elective unilateral inguinal herniorrhaphy under general anesthesia
• American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) physical classification I-III

Exclusion criteria

• Patients who will undergo laparoscopic surgery
• Previous inguinal hernia repair surgery
• A history of opioid use or pain management
• Coagulopathy or anticoagulant use
• Patients who have difficulty communicating or who are not cooperative