Use of Erector Spinae Plane Block for Perioperative Pain Control in a Patient Undergoing Spinal Surgery

Regional anesthetic techniques have become a vital part of the perioperative pain control process. The opioid crisis remains a major obstacle in the medical field today and many practitioners have looked upon regional nerve blocks to decrease opioid usage. The erector spinae plane block (ESPB) has gained prominence as a viable option for perioperative pain control for numerous procedures. Spinal surgery, although mostly utilized to relieve back pain, can be extremely painful for the patient perioperatively. To mitigate pain, many practitioners have turned to oral analgesics as regional techniques have not been typically employed. Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) surgeries in particular have been implicated as exquisitely painful and may predispose patients to sustained opioid use postoperatively. Many of these patients are on chronic opioid therapy and they have developed the syndrome of opioid abuse hyperalgesia; therefore, decreasing the need for opioids postoperatively is of utmost importance. We present the case of a successful ESPB performed prior to emergence for a patient undergoing ACDF to limit opioid consumption. Informed consent was provided by the patient for this case report.