Serratus Anterior Plane Block for Minimal Invasive Cardiac Surgery

Analgesia in cardiac surgery is historically based on large doses of intravenous opiods. However, this practice is rapidly changing due to \"Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS)\" protocols with proven benefits on morbidity and mortality. Also, the opioid crisis caused by opioid abuse, has changed anaesthesia practice to reduce the use of opioids after surgery. Therefore, perioperative multimodal pain management with regional anaesthesia in minimal invasive cardiac surgery (MICS) has gained a lot of interest. Serratus Anterior Plane Block (SAPB) is one example of the fascial plane chest wall blocks and aims at achieving complete sensory loss of the anterolateral hemithorax via blockade of the lateral cutaneous branches of the thoracic intercostal nerves (T2-T12). SAPB has already proved its efficacy in thoracic surgery as it reduced pain scores and opioid consumption compared to systemic analgesia in the first 12-24h after surgery. However only few studies investigated the effects of SAPB in minimal invasive cardiac surgery. Therefore the primary aim of this study is to investigate the analgesic effects of a superficial SAPB in Minimal Invasive Cardiac Surgery compared to a control group with standard intravenous opioid analgesia.