Post Operative Pain Control Using Ropivacaine and the ON-Q System in the Adult Pectus Excavatum Patient

Not Applicable

Completed

Interventions: Drug: Epidural (ropivicaine 0.25%)
Device: ON-Q soaker catheter system

Brief Summary: Pectus excavatum (PE) is a common chest wall deformity where the sternum is displaced posteriorly. In severe cases, surgery is performed to correct the defect. In recent years, minimally invasive surgery with the placement of stainless steel support bars has been increasingly performed in patients over the age of 17 years. Because of the decreased malleability and tremendous pressure required to hold the chest wall in the corrected position, post-operative pain control has been a significant problem in this patient population. Thoracic epidurals are commonly employed however mean hospitalizations of up to 7 days have been required before adequate pain control on oral analgesics is obtained and patients are suitable for discharge.

It is hypothesized that using the ON-Q system (I-Flow Corporation, Lake Forest CA) with bilateral intercostal catheter infusion would provide adequate post operative pain control with a significantly shorter hospital length-of-stay than thoracic epidural. Total use of narcotics for 1 week following surgery would also be less with the ON-Q system versus epidural.

Detailed Description: Subjects meeting eligibility criteria were randomized to one of two arms for postoperative pain control: the On-Q system versus epidural. All subjects had additional pain management as per standardized protocol including subject controlled intravenous analgesia with morphine equivalent narcotics for a maximum of 48 hours at which time the subject was transitioned to oral pain medications. Subjects using less than 5 mg of Morphine in the first 24 hours after surgery were transitioned to oral pain medications at 24 hours. After transition to oral analgesia, subjects with continued pain assessment greater than 5 were administered intravenous morphine equivalents by nursing staff until pain assessments were less than 5.

ON-Q catheters could have been maintained for up to 6 days. Discharge of subjects with catheters in place was planned. The catheter was removed in the out-patient clinic if the subject was discharged before the 6th day. Subjects with epidural had their epidural discontinued at 72 hours.

Data was recorded for each subject by site personnel while the subjects remained hospitalized, but were recorded in a journal by subjects after discharge up to postoperative day 7.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Patients who are scheduled for repair of their pectus excavatum with minimally invasive (MIRPE) placement of steel or titanium braces at Mayo Clinic Arizona
Must be able to take oral medications preoperatively and postoperatively.

Exclusion Criteria

American Society of Anesthesiology class IV or higher
Allergic to Ropivacaine or other local anesthetics
NSAID allergy
Specific epidural contraindication
Currently using opioids, sedatives, or hypnotics
Are pregnant as verified by preoperative pregnancy testing
Inability to place an epidural, patient refusal for epidural, or failure of an epidural to be properly placed or maintain proper placement for adequate pain control.

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Thoracic epidural	Epidural (ropivicaine 0.25%)	Thoracic epidural with Ropivicaine 0.25% placed pre-operatively by the anesthesiologist. Epidurals will remain in place for 72 hours and discontinued by the anesthesia pain management team.
ON-Q soaker catheter system	ON-Q soaker catheter system	ON-Q soaker catheter system with Ropivicaine at 7 cc per hour placed by a single surgeon in the operating room. 7.5" catheters will be tunneled subcutaneously in the anterior axilla bilateral and secured with steri-strips and dressing. ON-Q systems will be primed with 750 cc and refilled accordingly to provide for 6 days of analgesia. Catheters will be removed by the surgeon in the hospital or clinic on the 6th post operative day. Patients may request removal of the catheter prior to the 6th day and this will not be considered a withdrawal from the study or complication and will be included in overall analysis, but noted accordingly.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Hospital Length of Stay	Up to 11 days post operation	Hospital length of stay was measured from the day of surgery (day 0) through postoperative day 11.
Use of Analgesic Narcotic	1-7 days post operation	Postoperative analgesic used each day over 7 day postoperative period.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Mean Daily Pain Score	Days 1-7 post operation	Pain was measured by a visual analogue scale (VAS) with pre-set markings from 0 to 10, with 0 for no pain to 10 for the worst possible pain. On the case report form each day had 6 time categories: waking up in the morning, around lunch time, afternoon approximately 3-4 pm, dinner time, bedtime, and during the night time. Each day was averaged for each subject, then the values for each arm were averaged.