QLB vs ESPB for Lumbar Spinal Surgery

Ultrasound-guided quadratus lumborum block (QLB) is a fascial plane block where local anesthetic is injected adjacent to the quadratus lumborum muscle to anesthetize the thoracolumbar nerves. The ultrasound (US) guided erector spina plane block (ESPB) is a novel interfacial plan block defined by Forero et al. at 2016. Visualization of sonoanatomy with US is easy, and the spread of local anesthesic agents can be easily seen under the erector spinae muscle. Thus, analgesia occurs in several dermatomes with cephalad-caudad way. It has been reported that ESPB provides lumbar analgesia at T10-12, L3. This study aims to compare US-guided ESPB and posterior QLB for postoperative analgesia management after lumbar disc herniation-laminectomy surgery.