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Background and Aims Although laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is a minimally invasive procedure, pain may occur in the postoperative period. The subcostal transversus abdominis plane (sTAP) block has been shown to provide effective postoperative analgesia in laparoscopic surgery. External oblique intercostal plane (EOIP) block has also been proposed as a novel technique to provide analgesia for upper abdominal surgeries. Our study aims to investigate the effect of EOIP block on postoperative pain score and opioid consumption in LC compared to sTAP block.

Methods After Ethical board approval, 80 patients were randomized to receive either EOIP or sTAP block. Bilateral blocks were performed with 20 ml of 0.375% bupivacaine in both groups after the induction of general anesthesia. All groups received standard general anesthesia and postoperative analgesia. Patients were evaluated in the PACU and postoperatively at 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 12th, and 24th hours. Pain scores and opioid consumption were measured.

Results There was no statistical difference between VAS scores at rest and active movement at all measurement times (p>0.05). Opioid consumption in the first 4 hours was less in the sTAP group than in the EOIP group (p=0.039) However, there was no statistical difference in opioid consumption at 24 hours (p=0.215). There was no statistical difference between the groups in terms of rescue analgesia or first analgesic need (p>0.05).

Conclusions After LC, the analgesic effect of the EIOB block is not superior to the STAP block in terms of pain scores and opioid consumption. EOIB can easily be used as part of multimodal analgesia in LC procedures.