Patient-Controlled Intravenous Analgesia with or without Ultrasound-Guided Bilateral Intercostal Nerve Blocks in Children Undergoing the Nuss Procedure: A Randomized, Double-Blinded, Controlled Trial

Table 3

Comparison of pain-related outcomes between the two groups.

VAS pain scores	Intercostal group	Control group	P value
Preoperative day 1	0	0	—
PACU	2.6 (1.3)	5.8 (1.4)	<0.001
Postoperative day 1	2.7 (0.7)	4.4 (1.2)	<0.001
Postoperative day 2	2.9 (1.0)	3.6 (1.1)	0.015
Postoperative day 7	2.1 (0.9)	2.4 (0.9)	0.234
Postoperative month 1	1.0 (0.7)	1.3 (0.8)	0.170
Postoperative month 3	0.5 (0.6)	0.5 (0.6)	0.901
Postoperative month 6	0.2 (0.4)	0.1 (0.4)	0.639
Postoperative year 1	0.1 (0.4)	0.2 (0.5)	0.519
PCIA press number
PACU	0 (0–1)	1 (1–2)	<0.001
Postoperative 24 h	4 (2–5)	11 (9–12.3)	<0.001
Postoperative 24–48 h	3 (1–4)	7 (5–9)	<0.001
Postoperative 48 h	6 (5–9)	17.5 (13.8–20.3)	<0.001
Rescue analgesics (μg/kg)
PACU	0 (0–0.3)	0.9 (0–2.0)	0.020
Postoperative 24 h	0.1 (0–1.3)	2.7 (1.8–5.0)	<0.001
Postoperative 24–48 h	0 (0–1.0)	3.4 (2.1–4.0)	<0.001
Postoperative 48 h	0.2 (0–2.5)	6.1 (4.1–7.9)	<0.001
Total amount of fentanyl (μg/kg)
PACU	0.5 (0.5–1.0)	1.7 (0.8–2.6)	<0.001
Postoperative 24 h	13.3 (12.7–14.4)	17.1 (15.7–19.7)	<0.001
Postoperative 24–48 h	11.4 (11.0–11.9)	12.7 (11.7–13.3)	0.009
Postoperative 48 h	24.2 (24.0–26.5)	30.1 (28.1–31.9)	<0.001