Transversus Thoracis Plane Block Versus Parasternal Intercostal Nerve Plane Block for Cardiac Surgery

Traditionally postoperative pain management after cardiac surgery has been based on opiate analgesics. However, opiates have some undesirable dose-related side-effects such as nausea, constipation, vomiting, dizziness, mental confusion and respiratory depression, which substantially influence patient recovery and may delay discharge after surgery. The American Society of Anesthesiologists has endorsed multi- modal analgesia, involving multiple analgesics with differing modes of action, to reduce the overreliance on opioid-based postsurgical analgesic regimens and the associated adverse effects. The safety of using the transversus thoracis muscle plane block (TTP) or the parasternal intercostal nerve block (PSI block) for cardiac surgeries allow to make the option of using opioids alone and the possibility of its complications not the rule in post-operative pain relief in cardiac surgeries. In the current study, improving the quality of the transversus thoracis muscle plane block (TTP) or the parasternal intercostal nerve block (PSI block) for cardiothoracic surgeries by enhancing post-operative pain relief becomes more and more required to cope up with the new surgical modalities.