Effect of Bilateral and Unilateral Erector Spinae Plane Block on Postoperative Pain in Patients Undergoing Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

Although laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a minimally invasive surgery with many advantages, it is one of the operations with high postoperative pain scores. Opioids are frequently used to prevent postoperative pain. Due to the side effects of opioids, the amount of use is tried to be reduced. Regional anesthesia techniques can be used to minimize opioid consumption. Erector spina plane block was first described in 2016 by Forero et al. in the treatment of thoracic neuropathic pain. Since then, ESP block has been used as an anesthetic and analgesic technique. It is applied by injecting local anesthetic into the fascial plane located between the erector spina muscle and the transverse process of the vertebra. Several high-level studies have shown that the ESP block can be used to reduce postoperative pain after gastrointestinal surgery. Several studies have evaluated the effect of ESP block for pain relief after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. ESP block has been applied unilaterally or bilaterally in various studies. However, in the current studies in the literature, the advantages or disadvantages of the bilateral application of the ESP block compared to the unilateral application have not been evaluated. In this study, the investigators aimed to evaluate postoperative pain by applying ESP block to patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy and to evaluate the advantages of unilateral or bilateral application of ESP block over each other.