Ultrasound Guided Bilateral Retrolaminar Block as Analgesia for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Correction

Scoliosis is a structural, tridimensional deformity of the spine. Characterized by lateral curvature and rotation of the vertebrae with functional limitations and cosmetic problems, idiopathic scoliosis, which accounts for 75% to 80% of all scoliosis, is the most common of all types. (1, 2) Surgical treatment is an effective way to correct severe spine deformity when the deformity progressively worsens and cannot be positively corrected by brace treatment. Spinal correction surgery is one of the most invasive surgical procedures and usually results in moderate to severe levels of postoperative pain. (3) Severe pain may induce implant complications such as construct dislodgement, broken instrumentation, and implant loosening which requires additional revision procedures These conditions adversely affect postoperative outcomes.(4) In the past several years, pain has become an important indicator for evaluating indicators of outcome and quality of life after surgery. Effective analgesia after surgery could improve patients' prognosis.(5) The retrolaminar block is a recently described ultrasound-guided technique in which local anesthetics is injected into the fascial plane between the posterior surface of the thoracic lamina and the overlying transverso-spinalis muscles. (2) The available evidence indicates that retrolaminar block is effective in reducing opioid requirements and improving the pain experience in a wide range of clinical settings. They are best employed as part of multimodal analgesia with other systemic analgesics