RESUMO
PURPOSE: Some studies have shown a significant reduction of postoperative pain by additional regional anesthesia in 20-gauge pars plana vitrectomy (20-G-ppV) with the patient under general anesthesia (AN). This observational study examined whether the advantages of additional retrobulbar anesthesia can also be observed with 23-gauge vitrectomy in AN. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Surgery was performed in 130 patients under AN of which 88 received an additional retrobulbar block (group AN+) and 42 patients were treated without additional injection of retrobulbar anesthesia (group AN) using bupivacaine 0.5 % and mepivacaine 1%. The AN was performed with fentanyl and propofol. Postoperatively, the subjective patient pain was recorded using a numeric scale and the use and amount of analgesic drugs in the postoperative course were monitored. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 53.6 ± 16.8 years, 52.6% of the patients were male, 31.5% were staged as American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) level I, 52.3% as ASA II and 15.4% as ASA III. At no time did the study show a statistically significant difference in pain frequency, intensity and analgesic consumption. However, the results suggest that patients in the AN+ group tended to experienced delayed and more intense postoperative pain, which is also reflected in the postoperative use of pain relief medications. CONCLUSIONS: This study did not show any advantage by additional retrobulbar anesthesia regarding postoperative analgesia compared to an adequate treatment with peripheral acting analgesics during surgery and the early postoperative period.