Regional Anesthesia in Breast Surgery

Anesthesia has three elements: immobility, painlessness, and amnesia. To achieve these three factors depends on the balance between multiple factors, so multiple parameters need to be used for evaluation. In terms of subcortical function, pain indexes such as analgesia nociception index, surgical pleth index, etc. can be used to evaluate. By monitoring the parameters and comprehensive evaluation during the operation, the patient's condition can be fully understood. Opioids act on the central nervous system, making the nerve response slow and analgesic The effect is good, but there are many side effects, such as nausea and vomiting, drowsiness, respiratory depression, constipation, endocrine disorders, etc., and the central nervous system is suppressed by opioids, but the surrounding tissues are still damaged, releasing inflammatory mediators, causing immune dysfunction. Therefore, it is necessary to suppress inflammation and reduce the use of opioids, but also to effectively relieve pain. Nerve blockade is a powerful tool for this purpose. Local anesthetics are applied next to the nerves of the wound so that the pain signal cannot be transmitted to the central nervous system, reduce inflammatory mediators, reduce acute and chronic pain.

Breast surgery can be completed by peripheral nerve blockade and intravenous sedation, which can reduce the side effects of general anesthesia such as nausea and vomiting, intubation discomfort and postoperative pain. The distribution of breast nerves is complex, from the superficial cervical plexus, brachial nerve plexus, and thoracic vertebral nerves. At present, the commonly used nerve blocking methods include spinal nerve block, thoracic muscle block, brachial nerve block, and superficial nerve block. Blocking methods such as the cervical plexus, studies have shown that peripheral nerve blockade can reduce the amount of opioid analgesics during surgery.

This research plan is to design a randomized clinical trial to observe changes in the analgesic injury index (ANI), surgical pleth index (SPI), intraoperative and postoperative opiate demand, pain index, etc. inpatients with or without regional anesthesia under non-intubated breast surgery.

Inclusion criteria

• Breast neoplasm require surgical resection of tumor
• Surgical type: non-intubated breast surgery under intravenous anesthesia

Exclusion criteria

• Contraindication for regional anesthesia: coagulopathy, infection
• Previous breast surgery
• Body mass index > 40
• Chronic opioid use
• Allergy to intravenous and regional anesthesia agents: Propofol, remifentanil, bupivacaine