Introduction
postoperative pain, ESPB, pain, paraspinal muscle, truncal block
ADVERSE EFFECTS, RESPIRATORY DEPRESSION, POSTERIOR, LOCAL ANESTHETICS
As the population ages, more older people are undergoing lumbar spine surgery. Posterior lumbar spine surgery is usually an open procedure that results in considerable postoperative pain due to paraspinal muscle dissection and disc removal. In a comprehensive analysis of 179 postoperative pain types, spinal surgery pain ranked second after open calcaneal surgery [Opioids are the main analgesic drugs used after spinal surgery. Due to reduced organ function, elderly patients are less tolerant of opioids and are more susceptible to respiratory depression, excessive sedation, and other adverse effects. Additionally, neuraxial blocks are rarely utilized because they block the anterior branches of the spinal nerves and interfere with intraoperative monitoring of lower limb motor function. With the development of ultrasound visualization techniques, regional block techniques play an increasingly important role in multimode analgesia. An erector spinae plane block (ESPB) is a truncal block in which a local anesthetic is injected between the transverse process and the erector spinae muscle (ESM) under ultrasound guidance. Local anesthetics are widely diffused between the transverse process and the ESM, thus blocking the dorsal branches of spinal nerves at multiple levels [A single-blind randomized controlled trial was designed to principally evaluate the impact of T12 ESPB on postoperative pain scores in elderly patients who underwent lumbar spine surgery. Second, the effects of T12 ESPB on intraoperative hemodynamics, perioperative opioid use, and recovery outcomes were also investigated.