Clinical efficacy of ultrasound guided bilateral erector spinae plane block for single level lumbar fusion surgery. A prospective, randomized, double blinded, case control study

Patients undergoing spine surgeries will have severeperioperative pain which leads to morbidity and demands adequate analgesia. Multimodal analgesia involving NSAIDS, intravenousparacetamol and steroids remains the mainstay for treating the pain in thesepatients. In spite of the adequate usage of the above drugs most of the patientmight require opioids in the immediate postoperative period due to severity ofpain. Regional anaesthesia in these cases is administered by giving the localanaesthetic in the epidural space or giving opioids epidurally orintrathecally, though they are rarely practised.  Erector spinae plane (ESP)block described in 2016 as a novel regional anesthetic technique for acute andchronic thoracic pain by Forerro et al [1]. It has also been usedfor postoperative analgesia for breast surgery [2] and abdominalsurgery [3]. With the advances in usage of ultrasound for regionalanaesthesia, the performance of plane blocks have become much easier and morereliable. The erector spinae plane block is a myofascial plane block where thelocal anaesthetics are deposited in the plane between the erector spinae muscleand the transverse process of the vertebrae. The local anaesthetic therebyblocks the dorsal rami of the spinal nerves mainly and also ventral rami. Weare studying the efficacy of ultrasound guided ESP block for perioperative analgesia onpatients undergoing single level lumbar spine fusion surgery with control group.