American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine hosted its annual meeting in Las Vegas on May 14 to 16. The ASRA, a global medical technology company focused on infection prevention, eliminating pain and speeding recovery, showcased data in poster presentations about the use of the ON-Q Pain Relief System in anterior lumbar interbody fusions.
Here are three presentations to know:
1. Brian Vaughan, MD, director of Acute Pain at Anesthesia Associates of Cincinnati and the Christ Hospital, presented a poster demonstrating that continuous transversus abdomens plane blocks with ON-Q were better than bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension. Findings from Dr. Vaughan's work include:
• Opiod consumption was statistically lessened throughout the hospital stay with reductions 46 percent, 34 percent and 34 percent on days one, two and total in the ON-Q group.
• Patients in the ON-Q group were capable of leaving the hospital one day sooner than patients treated with bupivacine liposome injection.
Dr. Vaughan explains his study showed how ON-Q enables healthcare providers to offer patients better pain management therapy for longer periods of time. This enables patients to take fewer narcotics and return home earlier.
2. Vincent Kasper, MD, from United Anesthesia Services and Steven Raikin, from Rothman Institute, presented a poster on results from a study comparing postoperative pain control in patients who received a continuous popliteal infusion with single-injection saphenous nerve block to those patients receiving a continuous popliteal infusion with continuous saphenous infusion.
The patients were undergoing complex foot and ankle procedures in an outpatient setting. Results from the study include:
• Patients receiving continuous popliteal infusion with continuous saphenous infusion fared better, showing a significant reduction in opioid analgesic consumption days one and two postoperatively.
• Patient-reported satisfaction after discharge was much higher in the dual-catheter group stating 8.5 out of 10 as opposed to 6.4 and 9.
• A dual-catheter continuous block better manages complex foot and ankle cases for outpatients.
3. Vlad Frenk, MD, from Stamford Hospital in Connecticut, presented a poster outlining the results from a 139 patient retrospective study examining the use of ON-Q to treat post-mastectomy pain. The results found the use of ON-Q to lead to less opioid, less pain, reduced costs and improvements in pain satisfaction.
Dr. Frenk's results include the following:
• Continuous paravertebral catheters using ON-Q reduced opioid consumption by 31 percent as opposed to conventional on-demand opioid-based management.
• Using ON-Q in a multimodal fashion with gabapentin reduced length of stay by 0.7 days and reduction in opioid consumption by 55 percent.
• A multimodal approach to postoperative analgesia resulted in a significant decrease in inpatient opioid use and decreased length of stay in patients undergoing major breast surgery.
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