Appropriate Analgesia for Breast Surgery By Paravertebral Anesthesia

Due to the increasing number of breast masses and a more preciseattention to them, a greater number of patients refer to clinics for biopsy orresection of breast and axillary lymph nodes. an appropriate anesthesia methodcan decrease hospitalization time, its expenditure and postoperative complications.paravertebral anesthesia [1] is a simple and feasible method in most cases and canprovide a very suitable analgesia for biopsy and operation and postoperativeanalgesia.method: paravertebral block was used for analgesia for 15 women having breastmasses who were candidates for biopsy and pathology examination by frozensection. biopsy was performed only by a single paravertebral injection (we did notinsert catheter for continuos analgesia) with sedation. the patients' satisfaction andanalgesia were evaluated postoperatively. first pain complaint and burning whichdemanded opioid prescription was considered at the end of analgesia of the block.the patients were evaluated for analgesia for 24 hours.results: paravertebral block provides an appropriate analgesia for breast surgery,and with good technical performance it offers a high rate of success. averageduration of analgesia was 17 hours and the patients did not need opioid in thisperiod; 60% of the patients (9 people) were discharged at the same day of thesurgery in the afternoon. those patients requiring mastectomy following the biopsywere anesthetized with tracheal intubation and atracurium muscle relaxant, and noopioid drug was used in their surgery. all the patients (15people) expressed theirsatisfaction with paravertebral block.conclusion: breast surgeries with paravertebral block were performed with a highrate of analgesia and patients' consent, a good reduction in patients’ expenditureand much lower incidence of complications and early ambulation of patients. otherregional methods like thoracic epidural block, intercostals block and localinfiltrations are also used for these surgeries. however, as the duration of surgeriesdiffers from one another, a safe and comprehensive method is important, andparavertebral block has these characteristics.