Multifidus Cervicis and Inter-Semispinal Plane Blocks in Analgesia After Cervical Spine Surgery

Major spine surgery with multilevel instrumentation is followed by a large amount of opioid consumption, significant pain, and difficult mobilization Pain is one of the main factors limiting ambulation, increasing the risk of thromboembolism by immobility, and causing metabolic changes that affect other systems. Therefore, individualized pain management with the use of appropriate analgesic techniques is of paramount importance. Moreover, early intervention in rehabilitation aiming at a better postoperative recovery may reduce the length of hospital stay and return to daily activity. Effective pain management is one of the crucial components in enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS).

Numerous regional anesthetic techniques have been used to provide analgesia following cervical spine surgery, including patient-controlled epidural analgesia, cervical paravertebral block, cervical plexus block, cervical erector spinae plane blocks, and local infiltration analgesia, however, each of these techniques has specific limitations that prevent them from being the analgesic technique of choice for such surgeries.

Up to the author's knowledge, there is no study done to compare multifidus cervicis plane block versus inter-semispinal plane block in a randomized controlled clinical trial as preemptive analgesia in patients undergoing cervical spine surgery.