Patient outcomes following implementation of an enhanced recovery after surgery pathway for patients with metastatic spine tumors.

BACKGROUND: Metastatic spine tumor surgery consists of palliative operations performed on frail patients with multiple medical comorbidities. Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programs involve an evidence-based, multidisciplinary approach to improve perioperative outcomes. This study presents clinical outcomes of a metastatic spine tumor ERAS pathway implemented at a tertiary cancer center. METHODS: The metastatic spine tumor ERAS program launched in April 2019, and data from January 2018 to May 2020 were reviewed. Measured outcomes included the following: hospital length of stay (LOS), time to ambulation, urinary catheter duration, time to resumption of diet, intraoperative fluid intake, estimated blood loss (EBL), and intraoperative and postoperative day 0-5 cumulative opioid use (morphine milligram equivalent [MME]). RESULTS: A total of 390 patients were included in the final analysis: 177 consecutive patients undergoing metastatic spine tumor surgery enrolled in the ERAS program and 213 consecutive pre-ERAS patients. Although the mean case durations were similar in the ERAS and pre-ERAS cohorts (265 vs. 274 min; p = .22), the ERAS cohort had decreased EBL (157 vs. 215 ml; p = .003), decreased postoperative day 0-5 cumulative mean opioid use (178 vs. 396 MME; p < .0001), earlier ambulation (mean, 34 vs. 57 h; p = .0001), earlier discontinuation of urinary catheters (mean, 36 vs. 56 h; p < .001), and shorter LOS (5.4 vs. 7.5 days; p < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of a multidisciplinary ERAS program designed for metastatic spine tumor surgery led to improved clinical quality metrics, including shorter hospitalizations and significant reductions in opioid consumption.

Ultrasound-Guided Serratus Plane Block for Treatment of Postmastectomy Pain Syndromes in Breast Cancer Patients: A Case Series.

Postmastectomy pain syndrome is common after surgical treatment for breast cancer and may be challenging to manage. Currently, there are a wide variety of approaches to treat this type of pain, including medications, physical therapy, and interventional procedures. However, because of the complexity of innervation of the breast, the serratus plane block may better target the web of nerves innervating the anterior chest wall including the breast. We present a case series of 8 patients who were successfully treated with serratus plane block for pain after treatment for breast cancer. We feel that this particular application for the serratus plane block deserves further investigation, as it is relatively easy to perform and has good clinical utility for this type of pain.

Comparison of perioperative outcomes for epidural versus intravenous patient-controlled analgesia after radical cystectomy.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The use of patient-controlled epidural analgesia after various operations has been associated with an early return of bowel function, thus decreasing patients' length of stay (LOS). The primary aim of this study was to compare LOS after radical cystectomy between patients who received epidural analgesia versus those who received intravenous patient-controlled analgesia. Our secondary analysis included the assessment of other metrics such as total opioid requirements, pain scores, return of bowel function, and complication rates between the 2 groups. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review using the electronic medical records of 308 patients who underwent radical cystectomies at Memorial Sloan Kettering between 2006 and 2011. We aimed to understand if epidural analgesia was associated with a reduced LOS compared with patient-controlled intravenous opioid analgesia. We also aimed to identify performance improvements as a function of epidural analgesia status using various metrics such as pain management, bowel function return, and complication rates. We used both univariate and multivariate analyses to identify if epidural analgesia was associated with meaningful differences in the aforementioned metrics. RESULTS: Median age at radical cystectomy, body mass index, sex, American Society of Anesthesiologists score, and T stage were similar for both groups. For our primary objective of LOS, we found no significant difference between the 2 cohorts (8 vs 7 days, P = 0.2). Analysis of our secondary outcome measures revealed that epidural analgesia use was associated with less total opioid requirement for the first 3 postoperative days (PODs) (P = 0.0001). In addition, epidural analgesia was found to be associated with improved postoperative pain scores compared with intravenous patient-controlled analgesia on PODs 1 (P = 0.0001) and 2 (P = 0.004), and there was a slight improvement on POD 3, but this was not significant (P = 0.77). In contrast, we found no difference between pain management types with regard to proportion of patients who experienced a delay in gastrointestinal recovery, fluid bolus requirements within the first 3 perioperative days, rates of infection, pulmonary complications, and grade 3 or greater complications. CONCLUSIONS: We have demonstrated that, despite significant improvements in initial pain control and less opioid requirement with patient-controlled epidural analgesia, there was no association between analgesic approach and LOS, return of bowel function, or complications.