Introduction
lung cancer, empyema, ESPB
LUNG CANCER, EMPYEMA, PLEURAL INFECTION
Post-operative analgesia is crucial for early rehabilitation in thoracic surgery, as patients are required to actively participate in respiratory physiotherapy.In an attempt to find safe and less invasive methods of postoperative analgesia, new techniques of nerve blocks have emerged. Among other peripheral blocks, intercostal nerve block (ICNB) and The ICNB applied intrathoracically at the end of the surgery, is a regional technique currently used for video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) procedures at our surgical center. While fairly simple to use and applied under direct vision, there are some disadvantages of the ICNB: limited time of analgesic effect, which cannot be extended by a continuous infusion, application at the end of surgery instead of pre-incision and multiple injections that are needed to pertain a single block. The block cannot be executed in the presence of pleural infection, e.g., empyema.The We compared the continuous ultrasound-guided ESPB with ICNB to evaluate their analgetic efficacy in patients after lung cancer resection, representing our institution's first study of continuous ESPB in Slovenia. We present the following article in accordance with the CONSORT reporting checklist.