COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BUPIVACAINE 0.25% VERSUS ROPIVACAINE 0.5% IN TRANSVERSUS ABDOMINIS PLANE BLOCK FOR POSTOPERATIVE ANALGESIA IN LOWER ABDOMINAL SURGERIES: A RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL

BACKGROUND: Transversus Abdominis Plane Block (TAPB) is a regional anesthesia technique. It provides analgesia after lower abdominal surgery particularly where parietal wall pain forms major component of pain. It allows sensory blockade of lower abdominal wall skin and muscles via local anesthetic deposition above Transversus Abdominis muscle. We evaluated efficacy of unilateral TAPB with bupivacaine and ropivacaine for postoperative analgesia in lower abdominal surgeries like hernia repair, appendicectomy in a hospital based, single blind, and prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial. METHOD: 75 adult patients undergoing elective unilateral lower abdominal surgery were randomized to undergo TAPB with ropivacaine (n = 25) or bupivacaine (n = 25) or Normal saline (n = 25). At end of surgery performed under spinal anesthesia unilateral TAPB on side of surgery was performed using 20 ml of 0.5 % ropivacaine or 0.25 % bupivacaine or saline. Each patient was assessed postoperatively by a blinded investigator in post-anesthesia care unit every 5 minutes for half an hour, then every 15 minutes till 2 hours and at 4, 6, 12, 24, 48 hours postoperatively in ward. RESULT: Mean duration of analgesia was 420.6 minutes with SD of + 14.01 in Bupivacaine group and 2187 minutes with SD of + 1011.09 in Ropivacaine group which was found to be statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Hence 0.5% ropivacaine provided longer duration of analgesia than 0.25 % bupivacaine when used in TAPB on patients of lower abdominal surgeries. There were no complications attributable to TAPB or drugs under study.