Clinical trial · Interventional
PECS Block in Partial Mastectomy for Postoperative Pain Control
Use of PECS Block in Partial Mastectomy for Postoperative Pain Control and Mitigation of Narcotic Use- A Randomized Control Trial
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
The aim of this study is to evaluate patients who are undergoing partial mastectomy or removal of breast tissue and see if a pectoralis nerve block (PECS) can provide a meaningful improvement in postoperative pain control over standard pain medication. The hope is that this will decrease the need for postoperative narcotics. Prior studies have shown improved pain control using a PECS block in patients who undergo a mastectomy. PECS block is a procedure in which local anesthesia, similar to that used by dentists, is injected in the muscles of your chest and arm pit during your surgical procedure while you are asleep. This anesthetizes the nerves in the area which decreases pain. The local anesthetic used is called Marcaine. Marcaine is the brand name for bupivacaine hydrochloride which is an anesthetic known for its long duration in comparison to lidocaine. It is known that postoperative pain is a risk factor for chronic pain which is tied to increased narcotic use. Due to the opioid epidemic considerable time and research has gone into decreasing opioid use particularly in post-operative period. The PECS block procedure involves injecting local anesthesia between two chest muscles called pectoralis major and pectoralis minor. There is an additional injection between the pectoralis minor and serratus anterior which is another muscle of the chest. This study will be conducted at Lankenau Medical Center of Main Line Health. You have been selected since you will be undergoing a partial mastectomy (removal of a part of your breast). It is believed that PECS block has the potential to benefit your postoperative pain control. A total of 130 patients will be recruited and 65 will be placed into the treatment arm (receive intraoperative nerve block) and 65 will be placed into the non- treatment arm (no nerve block) for comparison.
Conditions
Conditions (4)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breast Cancer | Malignant Breast Neoplasm | CURATED_EXACT | 0.92 |
| Local Anesthesia | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Opioid Use | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Postoperative Pain | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (2)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pectoral Nerve Block | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Surgery without Nerve Block | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- PECS Block
- description
- Group who was randomly selected to receive the intraoperative nerve block.
- interventionNames
- Procedure: Pectoral Nerve Block
- type
- SHAM_COMPARATOR
- label
- Control
- description
- Patient who was randomly selected not to receive intraoperative nerve block
- interventionNames
- Procedure: Surgery without Nerve Block
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Postoperative pain
- timeFrame
- Immediately postoperatively until day 3
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- Female
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Inclusion criteria are patients are undergoing a partial mastectomy or excisional biopsy. Patients may undergo additional procedures such as sentinel lymph node biopsy or axillary lymph node dissection which will be recorded. Exclusion Criteria: * Chronic Pain, Presence of Breast Implants prior to surgery
References
Publications (7)
- BACKGROUNDBashandy GM, Abbas DN. Pectoral nerves I and II blocks in multimodal analgesia for breast cancer surgery: a randomized clinical trial. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2015 Jan-Feb;40(1):68-74. doi: 10.1097/AAP.0000000000000163. PMID 25376971
- BACKGROUNDBlanco R. The 'pecs block': a novel technique for providing analgesia after breast surgery. Anaesthesia. 2011 Sep;66(9):847-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2044.2011.06838.x. No abstract available. PMID 21831090
- BACKGROUNDKulhari S, Bharti N, Bala I, Arora S, Singh G. Efficacy of pectoral nerve block versus thoracic paravertebral block for postoperative analgesia after radical mastectomy: a randomized controlled trial. Br J Anaesth. 2016 Sep;117(3):382-6. doi: 10.1093/bja/aew223. PMID 27543533
- BACKGROUNDKumar S, Goel D, Sharma SK, Ahmad S, Dwivedi P, Deo N, Rani R. A randomised controlled study of the post-operative analgesic efficacy of ultrasound-guided pectoral nerve block in the first 24 h after modified radical mastectomy. Indian J Anaesth. 2018 Jun;62(6):436-442. doi: 10.4103/ija.IJA_523_17. PMID 29962525
- BACKGROUNDZhao J, Han F, Yang Y, Li H, Li Z. Pectoral nerve block in anesthesia for modified radical mastectomy: A meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 May;98(18):e15423. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000015423. PMID 31045802
- BACKGROUNDSenapathi TGA, Widnyana IMG, Aribawa IGNM, Jaya AAGPS, Junaedi IMD. Combined ultrasound-guided Pecs II block and general anesthesia are effective for reducing pain from modified radical mastectomy. J Pain Res. 2019 Apr 26;12:1353-1358. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S197669. eCollection 2019. PMID 31114311
- BACKGROUNDVersyck B, van Geffen GJ, Chin KJ. Analgesic efficacy of the Pecs II block: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Anaesthesia. 2019 May;74(5):663-673. doi: 10.1111/anae.14607.