Background and Aims Quality of Recovery (QoR) of patients after major abdominal surgeries is a field of concern for anesthesiologists. In this study we evaluated the efficacy of continuous, bilateral Erector Spinae Plane Block (ESPB) in enhancing QoR and satisfaction of patients undergoing elective laparoscopic (LC) or open colectomy (OC).

Methods This study is a double-blinded, randomized, controlled, prospective study, submitted to clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04879004). 30 patients scheduled for OC and LC were randomized into 4 equal groups. If the patient was randomized in Group R_L or R_O, Ropivacaine 0.375% (20 ml) was infused at each side 30 minutes before induction of GA and 0.2% (20 ml) 12, 24, 36 and 48 hours after surgery. If the patient was randomized in Group C_L or C_O, N/S 0.9% (20 ml) was infused in the same manner. We recorded QoR score on the 3d postoperative day, satisfaction score and discharge time of patients. Statistical analysis was performed with JamoviVersion1.6.18.0, using MannWhitneyU test.

Results All groups were similar. No statistically significant differences were found between groups R_L and C_L regarding QoR, satisfaction score and discharge time of the patients (p=0.061, p=0.061, p=0.704 respectively). Regarding OC, QoR score and satisfaction score of the patients were significantly higher in Group R_O when compared to C_O (p=0.002 and p=0.042 respectively). There was found no statistically significant difference between these groups regarding discharge time of the patients (p=0.122).

Conclusions In this study, we confirmed that ESPB is an effective method which contributes to the improvement of QoR and satisfaction score of patients undergoing OC.