Patients
postoperative pulmonary infection, nausea and vomiting, allergy, pain, psychiatric, chronic pain, hepatic or renal insufficiency
HEART DISEASES, DISEASE, ALLERGY, CHRONIC PAIN
This was a single center with balanced randomization, double-blind, parallel-group study. This study was approved by Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi ‘an Jiaotong University (NO.2018G-22) and registered in Chinese Clinical Trials Registry (Registration No: ChiCTR1900021017, Date of Registration, 25/01/2019). Patients aged 18–70 years old with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status I-II and undergoing thoracoscopic pulmonary resection in our hospital were enrolled in the study. The exclusion criteria included allergy to local anesthesia, severe heart diseases, hepatic or renal insufficiency, a history of chronic pain or chronic opioid use and psychiatric disease.Using a simple randomization procedure with computer-generated allocation, patients were allocated randomly to intercostal nerve block group (ICNB) and control group. The allocation sequence was concealed from the investigator enrolling and assessing participants by using sequentially-numbered, opaque, sealed, and stapled envelopes. All patients and the investigator who was responsible for follow-up postoperative were blinded to the randomization groups. In addition, before surgery we educated patients how to use the visual analog scale (VAS) to evaluate pain.The primary outcome is visual analog scale pain score (VAS) at rest at 0,4, 8,16,24,48,72 and 168 h postoperatively. The surgical outcomes including length of postoperative stay, duration of insertion of chest tube, incidence of nausea and vomiting and postoperative pulmonary infection were recorded and the rescue analgesia requirement in the two groups was also recorded.