A Clinical Trial of Adding Morphine to Levobupivacaine in TAP Block for Open Appendectomy

Abstract

Postoperative pain management is becoming an integral part of anaesthesia care. Various techniques of pain relief have been designed among which the most commonly practiced are peripheral nerve blocks. We have designed the study to assess analgesic efficacy, duration of postoperative analgesia, hemodynamic stability, and total need of analgesics and opioids after adding morphine to levobupivacaine in TAP block for open appendectomy. Transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block is one of the approaches to provide effective postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing surgical procedures involving anterior abdominal wall and is being investigated for its usefulness in different types of surgeries in different settings. TAP block can be performed either by using ultrasound or in an open abdomen or blindly with land mark technique in which local anaesthetic is deposited in the transverses abdominis fascial plane via a regional anaesthesia needle inserted through the lumbar triangle of Petit. The aim of our study is to assess the analgesic effect of peripherally administered morphine with levobupivacaine for ipsilateral TAP block in patients undergoing appendectomy under general anaesthesia.