USG PECS vs LIA for Breast Cancer Surgery

Breast Cancer Female Clinical Trial

Official title:

Ultrasound Guided (USG) PECS Versus Local Infiltration Anaesthesia (LIA) for Breast Cancer Surgery - A Randomized Quadruple Blinded Efficacy and Safety Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03555227
• Other study ID #: ST1516/35-193503
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 25, 2017
• Est. completion date: November 25, 2018

Study information

• Verified date: November 2018
• Source: National Health Service, United Kingdom
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Breast cancer is the most common cancer for which women in the UK (United Kingdom) undergo surgery. A novel ultrasound guided regional anaesthetic technique called the 'Pecs 2' block has recently been described. This study compares ultrasound guided (USG) Pecs 2 block with local anaesthetic infiltration (LIA) for pain relief following breast cancer surgery.

Description:

Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in UK for which women undergo surgery. Pain relief for breast surgery may be either opioid/morphine based or regional or local anesthetic technique based. Both have specific advantages and disadvantages. Regional anesthesia is known to suppress the stress response to surgery by blocking noxious afferent neural input into the central nervous system. Locoregional anesthetic techniques offer excellent pain relief without the disadvantages of morphine.These include thoracic epidural anesthesia, paravertebral block, intercostal blocks and local anesthetic infiltration of the wound. More recently, a novel ultrasound guided interfascial nerve block technique the 'Pecs block' was proposed by Blanco et al which provides an alternative method of providing postoperative analgesia for breast surgery.There is also evidence, albeit limited to support use of local anesthetic infiltration in breast surgery, which is widely used for analgesia.

Currently, there are no large randomised control trials to prove the safety and efficacy of ultrasound guided Pecs blocks in breast surgery. Also, wound infiltration with local anesthetic is practiced widely and to date, there has been no study comparing local anesthetic wound infiltration with USG pecs blocks.

On this background, we intend to perform a prospective randomised double blinded trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ultrasound guided Pecs blocks for breast surgery by comparing it local anesthetic wound infiltration.

This is a single-centre, prospective, double blinded randomised case control interventional study. The study plans to enroll 110 participants.

Patients will be randomly allocated to either group X or Y using computer generated numbers. Standard monitoring as per AAGBI (Association of anesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland) guidelines will be instituted as per clinical requirement. All patients will be anaesthetized using total intravenous anesthesia using TCI (target controlled infusions) of propofol and remifentanil. Intraoperatively, propofol and remifentanil infusions shall be titrated by the anesthetist to maintain adequate depth of anesthesia and analgesia.

Following induction of anesthesia and before surgical incision, all patients will receive USG modified Pecs 2 blocks as described by Blanco et al with 30 mls of pharmacy prepared Drug A (containing active drug that is 0.25% levobupivacaine) or Drug P (containing placebo 0.9% NaCl), labelled "PRE" (pre-surgery) respectively based on the group to which they are allocated.

At the end of surgery, the surgeon shall infiltrate the wound with 30 mls of Drug P or Drug A respectively, labelled "POST". (post-surgery)

The anesthetist and surgeon doing the interventions will both be blinded as to the pharmacological contents of the drug. This will be done as previously mentioned with pharmacy labelling the drugs as "PRE" used for USG pecs block and "POST" for wound infiltration.

Also the observer, in this case the recovery nurse who will be titrating analgesia in the immediate postoperative period shall be blinded as to what group the patient belongs to. Intraoperative analgesia will be provided by TCI remifentanil. It shall be supplemented in all patients with intravenous paracetamol and parecoxib as part of a multimodal analgesic technique. Following completion of surgery, the patients will be recovered by two dedicated recovery nurses. The nurses will titrate intravenous morphine in the immediate postoperative period aiming to keep the NRS (Numerical rating Scale) pain scores below 1.

Observations will be made in the intraoperative & postoperative period looking at relevant outcome measures. Patients shall be followed up at 1h, 6h and 24 hrs to collect primary outcome measures. Secondary outcomes will be collected by telephonic follow up at 6 months and 12 month intervals following surgery.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 110
• Est. completion date: November 25, 2018
• Est. primary completion date: November 25, 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Female
• Age group: 16 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adult female breast cancer patients

• Admitted to Craigavon Area Hospital

• Requiring and undergoing elective/urgent unilateral breast surgery as set out in the protocol

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patient allergic to local anaesthetic

• Any condition precluding safe use of USG pecs blocks e.g. Infection at site, anatomical abnormality etc.

• Preoperative chronic pain and or on pain medication over and above simple analgesics. Patients receiving any analgesia other than paracetamol, NSAIDS and codeine shall be excluded from the study.

• Bilateral breast surgery

• Consent declined

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Breast Cancer Female
• Breast Neoplasms

Intervention

Procedure:
• USG PECS2 with Drug A (active)
Ultrasound guided Pecs 2 blocks with 0.25% levobupivacaine
• USG PECS2 with Drug P (placebo)
Ultrasound guided Pecs 2 blocks with placebo (0.9% saline)
• Wound infiltration with Drug P (placebo)
Wound infiltration at the end of surgery with Drug P (0.9% saline)
• Wound infiltration with Drug A (active)
Wound infiltration at the end of surgery with 0.25% levobupivacaine

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United Kingdom	Craigavon Area Hospital	Portadown	Northern Ireland

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
National Health Service, United Kingdom	Southern Health and Social Care Trust

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United Kingdom, 

References & Publications (19)

Bashandy GM, Abbas DN. Pectoral nerves I and II blocks in multimodal analgesia for breast cancer surgery: a randomized clinical trial. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2015 Jan-Feb;40(1):68-74. doi: 10.1097/AAP.0000000000000163. — View Citation

Bennett M. The LANSS Pain Scale: the Leeds assessment of neuropathic symptoms and signs. Pain. 2001 May;92(1-2):147-57. — View Citation

Bennett MI, Smith BH, Torrance N, Potter J. The S-LANSS score for identifying pain of predominantly neuropathic origin: validation for use in clinical and postal research. J Pain. 2005 Mar;6(3):149-58. — View Citation

Blanco R, Fajardo M, Parras Maldonado T. Ultrasound description of Pecs II (modified Pecs I): a novel approach to breast surgery. Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim. 2012 Nov;59(9):470-5. doi: 10.1016/j.redar.2012.07.003. Epub 2012 Aug 29. — View Citation

Blanco R. The 'pecs block': a novel technique for providing analgesia after breast surgery. Anaesthesia. 2011 Sep;66(9):847-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2044.2011.06838.x. — View Citation

Bonnema J, van Wersch AM, van Geel AN, Pruyn JF, Schmitz PI, Paul MA, Wiggers T. Medical and psychosocial effects of early discharge after surgery for breast cancer: randomised trial. BMJ. 1998 Apr 25;316(7140):1267-71. — View Citation

Bonnema J, van Wersch AM, van Geel AN, Pruyn JF, Schmitz PI, Uyl-de Groot CA, Wiggers T. Cost of care in a randomised trial of early hospital discharge after surgery for breast cancer. Eur J Cancer. 1998 Dec;34(13):2015-20. — View Citation

Bundred N, Maguire P, Reynolds J, Grimshaw J, Morris J, Thomson L, Barr L, Baildam A. Randomised controlled trial of effects of early discharge after surgery for breast cancer. BMJ. 1998 Nov 7;317(7168):1275-9. — View Citation

Byager N, Hansen MS, Mathiesen O, Dahl JB. The analgesic effect of wound infiltration with local anaesthetics after breast surgery: a qualitative systematic review. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2014 Apr;58(4):402-10. doi: 10.1111/aas.12287. Review. — View Citation

Campbell I, Cavanagh S, Creighton J, French R, Banerjee S, Kerr E, Shirley R. To infiltrate or not? Acute effects of local anaesthetic in breast surgery. ANZ J Surg. 2015 May;85(5):353-7. doi: 10.1111/ans.12541. Epub 2014 Apr 22. — View Citation

Exadaktylos AK, Buggy DJ, Moriarty DC, Mascha E, Sessler DI. Can anesthetic technique for primary breast cancer surgery affect recurrence or metastasis? Anesthesiology. 2006 Oct;105(4):660-4. — View Citation

Lynch EP, Welch KJ, Carabuena JM, Eberlein TJ. Thoracic epidural anesthesia improves outcome after breast surgery. Ann Surg. 1995 Nov;222(5):663-9. — View Citation

Myles PS, Wengritzky R. Simplified postoperative nausea and vomiting impact scale for audit and post-discharge review. Br J Anaesth. 2012 Mar;108(3):423-9. doi: 10.1093/bja/aer505. Epub 2012 Jan 29. — View Citation

Naja MZ, Ziade MF, Lönnqvist PA. Nerve-stimulator guided paravertebral blockade vs. general anaesthesia for breast surgery: a prospective randomized trial. Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2003 Nov;20(11):897-903. — View Citation

Purushotham AD, McLatchie E, Young D, George WD, Stallard S, Doughty J, Brown DC, Farish C, Walker A, Millar K, Murray G. Randomized clinical trial of no wound drains and early discharge in the treatment of women with breast cancer. Br J Surg. 2002 Mar;89(3):286-92. — View Citation

Pusch F, Freitag H, Weinstabl C, Obwegeser R, Huber E, Wildling E. Single-injection paravertebral block compared to general anaesthesia in breast surgery. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 1999 Aug;43(7):770-4. — View Citation

Sacerdote P, Bianchi M, Gaspani L, Manfredi B, Maucione A, Terno G, Ammatuna M, Panerai AE. The effects of tramadol and morphine on immune responses and pain after surgery in cancer patients. Anesth Analg. 2000 Jun;90(6):1411-4. — View Citation

Vila H Jr, Liu J, Kavasmaneck D. Paravertebral block: new benefits from an old procedure. Curr Opin Anaesthesiol. 2007 Aug;20(4):316-8. Review. — View Citation

Yeager MP, Colacchio TA, Yu CT, Hildebrandt L, Howell AL, Weiss J, Guyre PM. Morphine inhibits spontaneous and cytokine-enhanced natural killer cell cytotoxicity in volunteers. Anesthesiology. 1995 Sep;83(3):500-8. — View Citation

* Note: There are 19 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Morphine consumption in Recovery	A measure of total amount in milligrams of morphine required in recovery	24 hours
Primary	Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) Pain scores	Self reported pain scores between 0-10 (0- no pain; 10- severe pain, as bad as can be) in recovery	24 hours
Secondary	PONV (Post operative nausea and vomiting) Impact Scale Score	Measures Incidence and severity of postoperative nausea and vomiting before discharge from recovery; Q1. Have you vomited or had dry retching?; 0 No; Once; Twice; Three or more times Q2. Have you experienced a feeling of nausea (an unsettled feeling in the stomach and a slight urge to vomit) If yes, has your feeling of nausea interfered with activities of daily living, such as being able to get out of bed, being able to move about freely in bed, being able to eat normally, or eating and drinking?; 0 Not at all; sometimes; Often or most of the time; All the time; To calculate the PONV Impact Scale score, add the numerical responses to questions 1 and 2. A PONV Impact Scale score >5 defines clinically important PONV	2 hours
Secondary	S -LANNS (Self- administered Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs) questionnaire for chronic post surgical pain	Incidence of chronic post surgical pain following unilateral breast and axillary surgery for breast cancer	1 year
Secondary	Cancer recurrence or metastasis	Incidence of cancer recurrence or new metastasis	1 year

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