Background: The complex innervation of the clavicle makes general anaesthesia a preferred technique for clavicular surgeries in current practice. The role and approach of regional anaesthesia remains unanswered.
Objectives: This study aims to delineate the relative effectiveness between interscalene brachial plexus block with either intermediate cervical plexus or superficial cervical plexus block (CPB) as the anaesthetics for clavicular surgery.
Design: A randomised, double-blind prospective study.
Setting: Single-centre, tertiary care medical college and research institute.
Patients: Fifty patients with American Society of Anesthesiologist's (ASA) grade I to III, aged 18 to 70 years, scheduled for clavicular surgery, during May 2018 to April 2019 were enrolled in this study.
Intervention: All patients received interscalene block with 10 ml of 0.5% bupivacaine. Patients were randomised to undergo additional ultrasound-guided intermediate CPB (Group-1) or superficial CPB (Group-2) with 10 ml of 0.5% bupivacaine.
Main outcome measures: The block success rate, sensory block onset time, haemodynamic parameters, duration of postoperative analgesia and complications were noted. Categorical data were analysed using the chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. Continuous data were analysed using Student's t-test.
Result: In Group 1, block success was 100%. In Group 2, five patients failed to achieve adequate surgical anaesthesia (P = 0.02). The average sensory block onset time in Group 1 was 2.5 ± 0.4 min and was longer in Group 2, 4.3 ± 0.5 min (P < 0.001). There was no difference between the groups with respect to haemodynamic parameters and complications. The mean duration of postoperative analgesia was longer in Group 1 (7.5 ± 0.8 h) as compared with Group 2 (5.7 ± 0.4 h, P < 0.001).
Conclusion: Ultrasound-guided combined interscalene and intermediate CPB had a better success rate, with faster sensory block onset time and prolonged postoperative analgesia as compared with interscalene and superficial CPB in patients undergoing clavicle surgery.
Trial registration: Clinical trial registry of India (www.ctri.nic.in) - CTRI/2018/05/013785.