Comparative study of injection 0.5% Bupivacaine and injection 0.75% Ropivacaine for their duration of anaesthesia/analgesia in Transversus Abdominis Plane block for unilateral inguinal hernia repair

The Transversus Abdominis Plane block is a new regional anaesthesia technique described for postoperative pain management with a potential utility as a sole anaesthetic for increasing number of surgical procedures. TAP block improves postoperative pain management, decreases postoperative visual analog scale score, opioid demand and time to first administration of rescue analgesic in patients undergoing lower abdominal surgeries.

In our study, we have used TAP block as a sole anaesthetic technique in elective patients undergoing unilateral inguinal hernia repair and compared two different local anaesthetics, 0.5% Bupivacaine and 0.75% Ropivacaine for their duration of anaesthesia/analgesia and cardiovascular stability.

A prospective randomized clinical study was conducted on 60 ASA I and II patients aged between 30 and 80 years coming for inguinal hernia repair fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria. They were divided into two groups of 30 each. Group B received injection 0.5% bupivacaine, group R received injection 0.75% ropivacaine, not exceeding 2.5 mg/kg body weight.

We have found that both the drugs give excellent anaesthesia for inguinal hernia repair with hemodynamic stability. 0.75% Ropivacaine with significant delay in onset of anaesthesia (13.46+/-3.2 min.) compared to 0.5% bupivacaine (7.86 +/-2.47 min.) (P value <0.001), gives prolonged postoperative analgesia, (675.54 +/-30.31 vs 573+/-45.72 minutes with P value <0.001). Transversus abdominis plane block can be used as a sole anaesthetic for inguinal hernia repair.