USG Guided Ilioinguinal and Iliohypogastric Nerve Block for Post-Oerative Analgesia Following Inguinal Hernia Repair

Background & Aims: Inguinal hernia repair is one of the commonest surgeries performed. Poorly controlled postoperative pain following herniorrhaphy might be a predisposing factor for the development of chronic pain. Use of ultrasound for nerve block enhances the success rate. Study conducted with the aim to gauge the analgesic efficacy of ultrasound-guided II-IH block in patients undergoing unilateral inguinal hernia repair. Materials and methods: Sixty patients of American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade I–II undergoing elective unilateral inguinal hernioplasty were enrolled into the study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups of 30 patients each. USG guided II-IH block performed with 15 ml of normal saline (group C) and 15 ml of 0.25% Bupivacaine (group S).VAS score was used for pain assessment. Patient who had VAS of 3 or more received i/v Pentazocine. Patients were monitored for VAS scores and total analgesic consumption for the 24-hour period. Results: II-IH block reduced VAS score at 2,4,6,8,12 hours. This nerve block with 0.25% bupivacain resulted 7.50 hours duration of analgesia. Rescue analgesia consumed less in group S. No complication observed in this study. Conclusion: Ultrasound guided ilioinguinal-iliohypogastric(II-IH) nerve block is effective and safe adjunct to multimodal postoperative analgesia after inguinal hernia repair surgeries. This reduces rescue analgesia consumption , provides good VAS score. No complication observed in any group