Comparison of three analgesic drug regimens with twelfth subcostal nerve block for pain control during extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy

Introduction and objective

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is the first-line treatment in the majority of cases of upper urinary tract stones. Since its introduction, attempts have been made to establish the ideal accompanying analgesic method to enable the application of shock waves of adequate duration and intensity for efficacious stone fragmentation. An open, randomized, prospective, longitudinal, comparative, and experimental clinical study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of subcostal nerve block with lidocaine, comparing it in combination with tramadol or diclofenac for pain control during ESWL.

Materials and methods

Seventy patients of both sexes were included in the study. Thirty-five were men and 35 were women, all above 18 years of age, with kidney stones or ureteral stones smaller than 20 mm. The patients were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: Group 1 (24 patients) Twelfth subcostal nerve block with 10 ml of lidocaine 2%, 5 min before ESWL. Group 2 (25 patients) Twelfth subcostal nerve block with 10 ml lidocaine 2% + intramuscular diclofenac sodium 45 min before ESWL. Group 3 (21 patients) Twelfth subcostal nerve block with 10 ml of lidocaine 2% + tramadol at 1 mg/Kg of weight, 45 min before ESWL. The visual analog scale (VAS) for pain was applied at minutes 10, 20, and 30 of the procedure.

Results

No statistically significant differences were reported by the ANOVA test for comparing the mean pain values between the three groups at minutes 10, 20, and 30 of the ESWL. There were no adverse effects.

Conclusions

Even though there were no statistically significant differences between the three groups, the analgesic regimen of twelfth subcostal nerve block with lidocaine 2%, alone, was as efficacious as its combination with other analgesics and therefore can be used as a sole analgesic method during ESWL.