A prospective observational study to assess analgesic effect of ultrasound guided transverse abdominis plane (TAP) block and transmuscular quadratus lumborum (QL) block for post-operative pain relief in inguinal hernia surgery.

⮚ Inguinal hernia repair is common surgical procedure, but it often accompanied by acute to chronic post-operative discomfort. Postoperative pain is associated with post-operative complications like delayed rehabilitation, reduced level of function and quality of life. [3]

⮚ Conventionally, opioids have been used to manage postoperative pain. However, opioid related adverse events including vomiting, respiratory depression, paralytic ileus and sedation have shift towards opioid sparing techniques for postoperative analgesia.

⮚ Few regional analgesic techniques like transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block, transmuscular quadratus lumborum (QL) block, Epidural analgesia, Lumber plexus block are used for postoperative pain relief for lower abdominal surgeries. [1]

⮚ Here, at our anesthesia department we are using conventional analgesia (iv/im) and various nerve blocks for postoperative pain relief for open hernia repair surgery.

⮚ The main goal of postoperative pain management is to keep drug doses as low as possible to reduce adverse effects. The transversus abdominis plane (TAP) and transmuscular quadratus lumborum (QL) blocks are regional anaesthesia techniques that provides analgesia in various lower abdominal surgeries. Some of the anaesthesia consultants prefer to give TAP block while some of them use QL block after open hernia surgery. [2]

So, we are going to do a prospective observational study to evaluate the analgesic effect of both the techniques on acute postoperative hernia surgery pain