Efficacy of Compound Betamethasone Injection Combined With Ropivacaine in Ultrasound-guided Thoracic Paravertebral Nerve Block for Chronic Post-thoracotomy Pain

PARAVERTEBRAL BLOCK (PVB) involves the injection of local anesthetic (LA) into a wedge-shaped space lateral to the spinal nerves as they emerge from the intervertebral foramina, producing ipsilateral somatosensory and sympathetic nerve blockade.Since its initial application in abdominal surgery, the technique has been adapted for rib fracture, flflail chest, open cholecystectomy, hepatic-biliary surgery, outpatient inguinal hernia repair, major breast cancer surgery, and open thoracotomy patient populations.Based on several recent systematic reviews and metaanalyses,TPVB and TEA are equal in analgesic effect after thoracic surgery. Moreover, TPVB is associated with fewer side effects,such as urinary retention,nausea/vomiting,pruritus and hypotension. It can also be used for patients with coagulation disorders. Kang et al. argued that TPVB can significantly improve postoperative rehabilitation in patients undergoing thoracoscopic radical lung cancer surgery .