2020 Volume 40 Issue 1 Pages 28-31
In this study, we retrospectively analyzed analgesic effects of peripheral nerve block in ICU patients. Eleven patients in the ICU at Tohoku University Hospital from January 1 to July 31, 2017 were included in this study. Most patients（8 cases, 73%）complained of severe pain with lesions in the costal nerves area which was treated by various approaches to costal nerve blocks such as intercostal nerve block, transversus abdominis plane block, parasternal intercostal nerve block. The median numeric rating scale（NRS）for pain score decreased from 6 to 2 after the PNB procedure（p = 0.002）. The interval from the nerve block to the first administration of an analgesic was 8 hours（median value）. This suggests that PNB reduces pain intensity and potentially leads to better systemic conditions without side effects in ICU patients with intractable pain.
