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Subject Area

General Surgery

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer affects more women than any other cancer, making it the second most frequent disease overall. This research set out to compare and contrast the effectiveness of traditional analgesic pain control with that of pectoral nerve blocks (PECs) in postoperative pain management for breast cancer patients who had undergone mastectomy.

Methods: This prospective study included 42 breast cancer patients allocated equally into two groups. Group A: had intraoperative subpectoral plane block using PECs, whereas group B: underwent conventional pain control using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDS) diclophenac sodium 25 mg/ml post-operatively.  An assessment of postoperative pain was conducted using a visual analogue scale (VAS).

Results: Sociodemographic variables (age, BMI, side, and ASA status) did not differ significantly across groups. When comparing the groups, researchers found that the NSAIDS group had a significantly higher mean VAS score, indicating that they were experiencing more pain. In comparison to the NSAIDS group, PECS II patients waited a significantly longer average time before requesting their first rescue analgesia. In the first twenty-four hours after surgery, the PECS II group used significantly less total rescue analgesics (g) than the NSAIDS group. The rate of nausea was much greater in the group given NSAIDs (38.1% vs. PECS II) as compared to the other group.

Conclusion: For breast cancer patients having a modified radical mastectomy, the intraoperative PECS II block was more effective than traditional NSAIDs in reducing postoperative pain and improving functional results.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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