Clinical Study Breast Surgery Using Thoracic Paravertebral Blockade and Sedation Alone

Copyright © 2014 James Simpson et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction. Thoracic paravertebral block (TPVB) provides superior analgesia for breast surgery when used in conjunction with general anesthesia (GA).AlthoughTPVBandGAare often combined, for somepatientsGA is either contraindicated or undesirable. We present a series of 28 patients who received a TPVB with sedation alone for breast cancer surgery.Methods. A target controlled infusion of propofol or remifentanil was used for conscious sedation. Ultrasound guided TPVB was performed at one, two, or three thoracic levels, using up to 30mL of local anesthetic. If required, top-up local infiltration analgesia with prilocaine 0.5 % wa