If you or someone you love is facing kidney removal surgery, here's some good news. A new analysis of past studies found that a simple nerve block given before the operation can significantly cut the amount of morphine needed afterward. Patients who got the block used about 16.67 mg less morphine in the first 24 hours compared to those who didn't. That's a meaningful reduction in a strong opioid.
The block, called a transversus abdominis plane block (TAPB), is an injection of numbing medicine into the abdominal wall. The analysis looked at data from 639 patients across several studies. Besides needing less morphine, patients who got the block also reported lower pain scores at rest and during movement at most time points over 24 hours. And they had fewer gastrointestinal side effects, like nausea and vomiting, which are common after surgery.
However, the block didn't speed up hospital discharge or delay the first time patients asked for pain relief. The results are promising, but the analysis combined data from different studies with varying methods, so the findings should be interpreted with caution. Still, for patients undergoing nephrectomy, TAPB appears to be a safe and effective way to manage pain and reduce opioid use.