Video assisted thoracoscopic surgery postoperative patients with vats evaluation of analgesis management: Retrospective study

Objective: The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of Paravertebral block and Intercostal block techniques in postoperative pain management for Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery (MITS), particularly in the Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS) technique, which has seen increased use in the last decade. Materials and Methods: This study examines 60 patients over the age of 18 who underwent thoracoscopic surgery in 2021 at Dicle University Hospital. Patients who received standard general anesthesia for VATS were divided into two groups for postoperative analgesia: those who received Paravertebral block (PVB) and those who received Intercostal block (IKB). The study analyzed patients' demographic characteristics, intraoperative and postoperative data using SPSS, considering p≤0.05 values as statistically significant. Ethical approval was obtained for the study, which was classified as a Type III descriptive clinical study. Results: In this study, the average age of patients was 46, with 65% being male and 35% female. The most common ASA scores were ASA-2 (48.3%) and ASA-3 (43.3%). Approximately half of the patients (48%) had a history of smoking, and 50% had additional illnesses. In terms of postoperative pain management, Group 1, which received paravertebral block, had significantly lower Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pain scores at various time points compared to Group 2, which received intercostal block (p<0.001). These findings indicate that Group 1 experienced significantly lower levels of pain, demonstrating the effectiveness of paravertebral block in postoperative pain management. Conclusions: The comprehensive examination and comparisons concluded that there are significant differences in pain management between the two groups and that paravertebral block offers a potential advantage in pain management, especially in the early postoperative period.