Table 2.

Randomized Controlled Trials Investigating the Effect of Regional Anesthesia/Analgesia versus General Anesthesia and/or Conventional Analgesia for Persistent Postoperative Pain after Breast Surgery and after Thoracotomy

Study	Intervention vs. Control	Adjuvant	Outcomes	Follow-up (months)
Breast Surgery
Baudry17	Single-shot postoperative local infiltration vs. none	None	Pain/no pain Allodynia/hyperalgesia	12
Bell18	Single-shot preincision local infiltration vs. none	None	Pain/no pain	6
Ibarra19	Single-shot preincision paravertebral block vs. none	None	Myofascial, phantom, or neuropathic pain	4-5
Kairaluoma20	Single-shot preincision paravertebral block vs. none	None	NRS >3 Analgesic consumption	12
Fassoulaki21	Single-shot blocks + continuous postoperative topical application vs. none	Gabapentin vs. none	Pain/no pain Analgesic consumption	6
Thoracotomy
Ju22	Continuous preincision and postoperative epidural analgesia vs. none	None	Pain/no pain Allodynia	12
Senturk23	Continuous preincision and postoperative epidural analgesia vs. none	None	Pain/no pain NRS Pain affecting daily living	6
Lu24	Continuous preincision and postoperative epidural analgesia vs. none	None	Pain/no pain	6
Katz25	Single-shot preincision intercostal blocks vs. none	Morphine, perphenazine, and indomethacin vs. midazolam and placebo	Pain/no pain VRS Analgesic consumption	18

NRS, numeric rating scale; VRS, verbal rating scale.

Adapted with permission from Andreae MH, Andreae DA. Local anaesthetics and regional anaesthesia for preventing chronic pain after surgery. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012 Oct 17;10:CD007105.¹⁵