Conditions: Pain
Keywords: Bupivacaine Cardiac Surgery Pediatrics Nerve Block
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 93
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
All pediatric patients who undergo cardiac surgery require analgesic medications for postoperative pain control and many require sedation to facilitate comfort with cares. Parasternal infiltration of local anesthetic for nerve blocks is a simple option to postoperative analgesia. The investigators hypothesize that Bupivacaine, a parasternal nerve block administered in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery will reduce the requirement of Opioids and other pain medications as well as decrease postoperative pain scores. This is a prospective, double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Subjects are randomized to receive either 0.25% Bupivacaine or normal saline following their cardiothoracic surgery.

Detailed description:
One of the most challenging struggles in clinical practices in pediatric cardiac intensive care units is the provision of optimal and safe postoperative analgesia and sedation. All pediatric patients who undergo cardiac surgery require analgesic medications for postoperative pain control and many require sedation to facilitate comfort with cares. Parasternal infiltration of local anesthetic for nerve blocks is a simple option to postoperative analgesia. Bupivacaine is a local anesthetic that can be injected into the intercostal spaces on each side of a sternotomy to induce nerve block.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the use of Bupivacaine as a nerve block in children undergoing cardiothoracic surgery will reduce postoperative pain medication use and decrease postoperative pain scores. The investigators hypothesize that the administration of Bupivacaine bilaterally into the posterior intercostal spaces on each side of a sternotomy following cardiothoracic surgery will reduce the requirement of pain medications as well as decrease postoperative pain scores.

This is a prospective, randomized, double-blind, control study. Subjects are randomized into two arms: those who receive 0.25% Bupivacaine and those who receive placebo (normal saline). Subjects receive 1 milliliter per kilogram up to 20 kilograms, then 0.5 milliliters per kilogram up to 50 kilograms of study drug.

Subjects are followed for 5 days postoperatively, then on day of discharge. Pain medication administered and Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, and Consolability (FLACC) scores are recorded daily for 5 days.

Arms:
arm 1: Bupivacaine as a parasternal nerve block following pediatric cardiothoracic surgery arm 2: Normal Saline

Interventions: intervention 1: Bupivacaine intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Bupivacaine will be administered bilaterally to the parasternal intercostal spaces during surgery according to these doses:

Under 20kgs weight: 0.25% Bupivacaine at 1 milliliter/kilogram (1ml/kg); Above 20kgs weight: 0.5% Bupivacaine at 0.5 ml/kg up to a maximum of 25ml of 0.5% Bupivacaine for patients \> 50 kgs intervention 2: Saline will be administered bilaterally to the parasternal intercostal spaces during surgery according to these doses:

Under 20kgs weight: 1 milliliter/kilogram (1ml/kg); Above 20kgs weight: 0.5 ml/kg up to a maximum of 25ml for patients \> 50 kgs

Protocol document: