The Effects of Serratus Anterior Plane Block on Postoperative Quality of Recovery and Analgesia After Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery

Postoperative pain still remains a challenging problem in patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). However, there is no gold standard for regional analgesia for VATS. Serratus anterior plane block (SPB) under ultrasound guidance has been described recently to achieve complete paresthesia of the hemithorax. Therefore, SPB has the possibility to provide analgesia following thoracic surgery. Pain following surgery is a critical side effect of surgery, which increases the risk of complications and delays a recovery. Therefore, SPB may help not only reduce pain following VATS, but also increase the quality of recovery. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of ultrasound-guided SPB on the quality of recovery and pain in patients undergoing VATS.