Evaluation of a Preoperative Nerve Block in Pain Scores Following Rhinoplasty/Septoplasty

With the current opioid epidemic, more than 40,000 deaths can be attributed to prescription and illicit opioid use per year. There is inherent risk for patients to develop addiction when prescribing opiates for pain relief, and methods to reduce its use or the amount prescribed can help mitigate this risk.

Surgery is one of the leading causes for prescribing narcotics to control pain. Patients undergoing rhinoplasty are often prescribed a short course of opiates during the acute post surgical phase. Intraoperative sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) block has been successfully and safely used in endoscopic sinus surgery, and has been shown to decrease narcotic use and inpatient hospital stay time.

The investigators are interested in determining if use of SPG block may offer an improved strategy to reducing the use of narcotics for post rhinoplasty/septoplasty pain relief. The investigators hypothesize that SPG block will reduce the amount of post operative opiates required for pain control.

The study population will include patients undergoing rhinoplasty/septoplasty at Keck Medical Center of USC who are able to provide consent. The study will include two arms: SPG block (experimental) and placebo saline injection (control). Patients' post operative pain scale and narcotic use will be recorded until first follow-up visit (2 weeks). Patient demographics, surgical indication, and intraoperative analgesia will be recorded. T-tests will be conducted between patient groups. ANOVA will be used to analyze other factors that may be associated with decreased narcotic use.