Operative Intercostal Nerve Blocks With Long-Acting Bupivacaine Liposome for Pain Control After Thoracotomy Kamal G. Khalil, MD, FACS, Mina L. Boutrous, MD, Adel D. Irani, MD, FACS, Charles C. Miller, PhD, Timothy R. Pawelek, MD, Anthony L. Estrera, MD, FACS, Hazim J. Safi, MD, FACS The Annals of Thoracic Surgery Volume 100, Issue 6, Pages 2013-2018 (December 2015) DOI: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2015.08.017 Copyright © 2015 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions
Fig 1 Box plot of daily pain scores for the epidural and infiltration groups. The lower box boundary represents the 25th percentile of the variable distribution, the white line at the midpoint of the box represents the median (50th percentile), and the upper boundary represents the 75th percentile, so that the height of the box represents the interquartile range. The diamond in each box is the mean for that variable level, and the lines protruding from each box on both ends represent the 95% confidence interval for the mean; p values for the comparisons are shown in Table 1. (IC = intercostal.) The Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2015 100, 2013-2018DOI: (10.1016/j.athoracsur.2015.08.017) Copyright © 2015 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions
Fig 2 PCA dose. Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) dose = daily hydromorphone dose (mg). (IC = intercostal; POD = postoperative day.) The Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2015 100, 2013-2018DOI: (10.1016/j.athoracsur.2015.08.017) Copyright © 2015 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions
Fig 3 Mixed-model estimates of pain score over postoperative days 1, 2, and 3. Treatment group remains statistically significant after adjustment for daily dose of adjunctive analgesia (see Table 2). The Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2015 100, 2013-2018DOI: (10.1016/j.athoracsur.2015.08.017) Copyright © 2015 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions