Role of Adjuvant Dexamethasone for Erector Spinae Plane Block for Postoperative Analgesia in Patients Undergoing Total Abdominal Hysterectomy: A Randomized, Double-blind Controlled Trial

Optimal dynamic analgesia is recognized as the key to enhanced recovery following open abdominal surgery. In the last decade, there has been a significant shift away from thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) that has been long considered as the gold standard. Various techniques have tried to replicate the analgesic efficacy of TEA. They include transversus abdominis plane analgesia (TAP), rectus sheath analgesia (RS), wound infusion analgesia (WI) and trans muscular quadratus lumborum analgesia. However, each of these techniques has specific limitations that prevent them from being the analgesic technique of choice for all open abdominal surgeries. Chin et al first described the erector spinae plane (ESP) block for providing analgesia following ventral hernia repair. The unique feature of the ultrasound-guided truncal blocks is that in all of these techniques, in contrast to peripheral nerve blocks, no nerve or plexus needs to be identified: Local anesthesia (LA) is injected in a particular muscle plane, in which the injectate spreads and reaches the intended nerves. This simple mechanism has made delivery of nerve blocks easy and versatile.