Bilateral continuous posterior quadratus lumborum block for analgesia after open abdominal surgery: A prospective case series

Abstract

The quadratus lumborum (QL) block provides analgesia to the abdominal wall while sparing the side effects of neuraxial blocks. We describe a case series of eight patients treated with a continuous infusion of local anesthetic via bilateral posterior QL catheters infusion block for analgesia after abdominal surgeries. We found that the median duration of the procedure was 26 min and the median opioid consumption over the first postoperative 72 h was 110 mg of morphine equivalents. The bilateral continuous posterior QL block is a feasible analgesic intervention and can be considered as a component of multimodal analgesic pathways.

Keywords

• acute pain; quadratus lumborum block; regional anesthesia