Fast track to Extubation after cardiothoracic surgery is becoming more common after a number
of reports showing it is safe and effective. However, It has introduced new challenges to
pain control. Intubated patients require larger doses of opioids and benzodiazepines for
comfort. In patients who are awake and spontaneously breathing, pain and agitation cannot be
treated with lower doses.
Some centers still administer continuous infusions of opioid and benzodiazepines to extubated
patients. These infusions may not be necessary and may even be harmful.
The recent pilot study (In press in Journal of cardio thoracic vascular anesthesia ) in our
Vinmec hospitals performing open heart surgeries of peri-operative regional analgesia by
Continuous Bilateral Erector Spinae Plane Blocks in adult showed that the pain relief was
efficient and the requirement for opioids was zero in post-operative period.
It confirmed that the impact of regional anesthesia techniques on main procedure-specific
postoperative outcomes is very important in opioids decreased use in the context of
fast-track programs that are fully suggested after cardiac surgery.
In April 2017 we introduced the technique of ESP block for open heart surgeries in Adults and
in pediatric. At the beginning we performed single shot block and the patients still needed
during around 30 to 40 hours small doses of opioids to release their pain according to the
evaluation by Comfort-B,FLACC VAS Scales. Since we are performing continuous peri-operative
regional analgesia by Bilateral ESP catheters the requirement for additional opioids to
release the pain is zero based on our practice of 480 ESP catheters for open heart surgeries.
We would like to compare the 2 analgesic techniques and analyze the post operative opioid
consumption, the quality of recovery and the quality of life after the surgery.