Ultrasound-guided modified thoracolumbar interfascial plane block is effective for pain management following multi-level lumbar spinal fusion surgery

Abstract

The number of spinal surgeries that are performed hasbeen increasing because of the rise in the incidences ofspinal diseases. Surgery for lumbar spinal fusion causessevere pain postoperatively, and the mobilization andrehabilitation of patients arevery important after surgery(Kim et al.2016 ). However, rehabilitation processes may benegatively affected by postoperative pain (Pınar et al.2017).Therefore, postoperative pain management is an im-portant issue following multi-level spinal fusion sur-gery. The postoperative pain can be managed with avariety of regional anesthesia techniques. One of thesetechniques is ultrasound-guided thoracolumbar inter-fascial plane (TLIP) block. TLIP block targets the dorsalrami of the thoracolumbar nerves, and there are in-creasing reports about its efficacy in pain managementfollowing spinal surgeries (Hand et al.2015;Ueshimaet al.2017;UeshimaandOtake2017). We report hereon a case involving successful pain management usingmodified TLIP (mTLIP) block following multi-levellumbar spinal fusion surgery. Written informed consentwas obtained from the patient for the publication ofthis case report and accompanying images.