Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Nov 2015
Case ReportsUnilateral Transversus Abdominis Plane Block Catheter for the Treatment of Abdominal Wall Pain in Pregnancy: A Case Report.
The transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block anesthetizes the anterior branches of spinal nerves that innervate the abdominal wall from T6 to L1 dermatomes and provide effective postoperative analgesia after abdominal surgery. Several applications of TAP catheters are described for both acute and chronic abdominal wall pain, but there are no reported cases of TAP catheters used during pregnancy. ⋯ A TAP catheter inserted under ultrasound guidance can be effective for the treatment of chronic abdominal pain during pregnancy and may provide an alternative analgesic modality when intravenous opioids are not providing relief or when neuraxial analgesia techniques are not feasible or contraindicated.