الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Breast surgery is an exceedingly common procedure and associated with an increased incidence of acute and chronic pain. Patients are often middle-aged women (1). Satisfactory post-operative analgesia prevents unnecessary patient discomfort. It may play a role in decreasing morbidity, postoperative hospital stay and thus the cost. Inadequate postoperative analgesia has harmful physiologic and psychological consequences that increase morbidity and mortality which subsequently delay recovery and the return to daily activity (2). Several regional anesthetic techniques involving local anesthetic wound infiltration (3), intercostal nerve block (4), para vertebral block (PVB) (5), and thoracic epidural analgesia (2) have been introduced in the management of acute post mastectomy pain, with the goal of reducing the side effects associated with general anesthesia. However, these procedures cause significant acute pain and may progress to chronic pain states in 25– 60% of cases (6). |