Continuous TAP Blocks: Relative Effects of a Basal Infusion vs. Repeated Bolus Doses
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02662023. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
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Official title
Continuous Transversus Abdominis Plane Nerve Blocks: Relative Effects of a Basal Infusion vs. Repeated Bolus Doses (A Randomized, Double-Masked, Active-Control, Split-Body, Crossover Study)
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Single-injection transversus abdominis plane (TAP) blocks have been used to treat postoperative pain, and are become very popular within the United States because of their high analgesic potency and relative ease of placement. Unfortunately, the longest local anesthetic available lasts only 8-12 hours. Continuous TAP blocks-also termed "perineural infusion"-involve bathing the multiple nerves of the abdominal wall in local anesthetic using a percutaneously-inserted perineural catheter inserted just anterior (ventral) and cephalad to the anterior superior iliac spine. For most catheter locations, an infusion is preferred to a single-injection nerve block because the duration of analgesia may be extended to better match the duration of surgical pain. But, unlike brachial plexus, femoral, and sciatic nerve perineural infusion, a continuous basal infusion of local anesthetic does not provide adequate analgesia for TAP catheters. This may be due to the fact that the TAP is a relatively tight space, so it might require a bolus of fluid to adequately spread the perineural local anesthetic to the multiple required nerves (as evidence of this, single-injection TAP blocks are very effective, although with a limited duration). The result is that while single-injection TAP blocks are widely used, TAP catheters have not been adopted. This scenario leaves surgical pain untreated following the resolution of the single-injection TAP block. The recent development of an infusion pump that can automatically deliver repeated bolus doses may allow the spread of local anesthetic to the multiple sensory nerves necessary to provide adequate analgesia, with a duration that better matches postoperative requirements. The investigators therefore propose a randomized, double-masked, controlled trial to determine if delivering local anesthetic as a repeated bolus dose results in improved local anesthetic spread/effects compared with a continuous basal infusion for TAP catheters.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT02662023
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase 4
- Enrollment
- 24 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Jan 31, 2016
- Primary completion
- May 31, 2016
- Completion
- May 31, 2016
- Last update posted
- Mar 17, 2021
2016
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ucsd Ctri | La Jolla | California | 92097 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02662023, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Mar 17, 2021 · Synced Sep 9, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT02662023 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.