Efficacy and Safety of Nerve Block for Postoperative Analgesia in Patients Undergoing Breast Cosmetic Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

[BACKGROUND] To evaluate the postoperative analgesic efficacy and safety of nerve block (NB) in patients undergoing breast surgery for cosmetic purposes.

[METHODS] PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and Cochrane Libraries were searched from inception to September 2022, to identify all eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Continuous data are presented as mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), whereas dichotomous data are provided as odds ratios (OR) with 95% CI. This meta-analysis was performed in RevMan 5.4.

[RESULTS] A total of 10 RCTs with 565 patients were meta-analyzed. Compared to the control group, the pain score of the NB group was significantly lower at postoperative 2, 3-4, 6-8, 12-16 and 24 h. Opioid consumption in the first postoperative 24 h was significantly lower in the NB group (MD = - 9.02, 95% CI - 14.29 to - 3.75, P < 0.05), I = 95%). In addition, the NB group showed a prolonged time to first postoperative analgesic requirement (MD = 43.15, 95% CI 4.74-81.56, P < 0.05, I = 96%), decreased incidence of additional postoperative analgesia (OR 0.14, 95% CI 0.07-0.28, P < 0.05, I = 0%) and reduced incidence of postoperative nausea or vomiting (OR 0.33; 95% CI 0.22-0.48; P < 0.05; I = 0%). There was no significant difference in operation duration between the two groups.

[CONCLUSIONS] Nerve block is an effective and safe option for postoperative analgesia after breast cosmetic surgery.

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