Bilateral Continuous Erector Spinae Blocks for Post-Sternotomy Pain Management

Regional anesthesia-and pediatric regional anesthesia in particular-is a rapidly evolving subfield of anesthesia practice driven with considerable urgency by the growing recognition that even appropriate perioperative opioid administration can have significant deleterious long-term effects.

Regional anesthetics can provide targeted, continuous analgesia to select dermatomes with minimal additional patient risk and as such, have become routine components of opioid-sparing intraoperative and postoperative pain management plans for non-cardiac surgical patients at a single institution. In addition to the postulated benefit of reducing overall opioid exposure (and potentially reducing the risk for long term physiologic and behavioral dependence upon opioids), regional anesthetics may allow for earlier extubation after selected surgeries, shorter intensive care unit (ICU) stays, shorter inpatient admissions, earlier mobilization, fewer gastrointestinal complications, and improved patient and care team satisfaction scores.

Historically, regional anesthetics have been avoided in cardiac surgery as most patients are pharmacologically anticoagulated during their procedures and are thus at increased risk for bleeding. This is particularly worrisome in the pediatric cardiac surgical population as many of these children remain intubated for an extended period of time postoperatively and therefore may not have reliable neurological exams in the setting of neuraxial regional anesthetics-potentially resulting in unrecognized hemorrhage-related acquired neurological deficits.

Recently, the erector spinae block (ESB) has become popular for providing analgesia after a number of anterior chest and abdominal procedures. This simple interfascial plane block can reliably provide unilateral chest and/or abdominal wall analgesia. It has been described in numerous case reports and case series as an effective block for management of unilateral thoracotomies, unilateral rib fractures, unilateral abdominal incisions and most notably, for management of post-sternotomy pain when applied bilaterally. New case reports and series involving the ESB are being published almost weekly with a growing number of manuscripts specific to cardiac surgical applications. Indeed, numerous randomized controlled trials have investigated the analgesic efficacy of bilateral erector spinae plane blocks (BESB) compared with conventional treatment for pain after cardiac surgery in adult patients and have been published recently (2018-2019) with promising results.

As an interfascial plane block in a compressible anatomical space, the ESB is considered safe in anticoagulated (or recently anticoagulated) patients. It is fast becoming a preferred anesthetic option at BCH for anticoagulated patients - as opposed to neuraxial (e.g. epidural) and paraneuraxial blocks (i.e. paravertebral) nerve blocks, which are largely contraindicated in this setting. Further, given its relative ease of placement, apparent efficacy and safety profile, it is increasingly becoming a standard option for patients undergoing a wide range of thoracic, abdominal and thoraco-abdominal procedures.