Preoperative Regional Nerve Block for Acute and Chronic Post-Operative Pain Following Mastectomy

Surgical intervention of breast cancer is vital to breast cancer treatment or prevention and patient outcomes. However, surgical therapy can lead to chronic pain that may affect quality of life for breast cancer survivors including the potential for long-term disability. Chronic pain after breast cancer surgery is common, occurring in about 25-50% of patients. This chronic pain commonly affects women following a mastectomy and is referred to as Post Mastectomy Pain Syndrome (PMPS). Regional anesthesia utilizing single dose nerve blocks is frequently utilized in the preoperative period for many surgical procedures and decreases postoperative pain. Regional anesthesia also frequently results in decreased narcotic use in the post-operative period. The use of regional fascial plane blocks or Pectoralis (PECs) blocks has increased in the setting of mastectomy. The regional block utilizes ultrasound guidance to inject local anesthesia into the fascial planes of muscles thereby infiltrate the surrounding nerves. One example is the pectoral I block which deposits local anesthetic between the pectoralis major and minor muscles and pectoral II above the serratus anterior muscle with an intended blockade for intercostals III, IV, V, VI and long thoracic nerves. These techniques have shown a decrease in postoperative pain and postoperative narcotic consumption. The investigators seek to evaluate if preoperative regional nerve blocks decrease post mastectomy chronic pain, improving the quality of life of breast cancer survivors. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine whether regional nerve blocks affect chronic post-mastectomy pain and whether the regional block is associated with perioperative pain and postoperative narcotic consumption.