Laparoscopic-assisted versus ultrasound-guided transversus abdominis plane block for laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

2024

Comparing Two Pain Relief Techniques for Gallbladder Surgery

Sample size: 603 publication 10 minutes Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Ghani Sundus Abdul, Hussain Hassan Ul, Wahid Maryam Abdul, Majeed Neha, Burney Sheeba, Tanveer Areesha, Asghar Muhammad Sohaib

Primary Institution: Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan

Hypothesis

Is laparoscopic-assisted transversus abdominis plane (LTAP) block more effective than ultrasound-guided transversus abdominis plane (UTAP) block for postoperative pain management in laparoscopic cholecystectomy?

Conclusion

The study found no clear advantage of LTAP over UTAP in managing postoperative pain and related outcomes in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Supporting Evidence

Seven randomized controlled trials involving 603 patients were analyzed.
No statistically significant differences were found in postoperative pain intensity at 6, 12, and 24 hours.
LTAP showed a significant reduction in 6-hour postoperative pain compared to UTAP.
Moderate levels of heterogeneity were observed among the studies.
Further large-scale RCTs are needed to establish definitive conclusions.

Takeaway

This study looked at two ways to help with pain after gallbladder surgery and found that neither method was clearly better than the other.

Methodology

A systematic review and meta-analysis of seven randomized controlled trials comparing LTAP and UTAP blocks in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy.