TAP block post c section

[Jhrrsn]

Anyone have experience having a TAP block after a c section in the UK? It’s injections into the nerves in the abdomen to block the pain and eased recover so they you need to take less painkillers. I have friends in the US who have had them and I was wondering if anyone had had one in the uk?

Not heard of this but to be honest i was surprised at how little the pain was (for me anyway). Totally manageable with paracetamol for a few days.

Have you had a section before? I’ve had 4 and morphine and cocodamol make me sick so I had just normal psi killers. I was fine with that.

If you’ve had a section under spinal or epidural TAP blocks don’t add much.

This is because in the UK we tend to put long acting opioid painkillers into the spinal or epidural which isn’t routine in the USA.

DoI: not current delivering obstetric anaesthesia as I work in another anaesthetic sub specialty, so if someone comes along who is and works in the UK believe them not me.

That’s interesting. One of these women had her first caesarean without and caesarean with a post operative TAP block and stated that the difference in her recover experience was “night and day”. She said she had bupivacaine with clonidine and the effect lasts up to 48 hours but is localised to the abdominal region. I’d much rather have this than need morphine for pain control.

That’s what BeaTwix is saying though OP, that in the UK the opioids are included in the spinal so it is localised.

I had a c-section in the UK and agree there was surprisingly little pain.

Some people do out TAP blocks in in the uk, but if it really made a huge difference we’d probably all be doing it! If they’re not routinely putting longer acting opioids into the spinal in their spinals US then that quite likely explains why pain might be a problem post op (not everything that happens in America is better!). Using a long acting opioid is routine here in spinal sections and a TAP block probably doesn’t add very much. It’s also another skin puncture near a surgical incision site and does have a small risk of infection. Women who’ve had a GA section may benefit more from a TAP block more, but only if it’s something that the anaesthetist does routinely. It’s not a technique that all anaesthetists do routinely…it may be worth asking, but I wouldn’t get too worried if it’s not something they think will help/can provide. They can be done postoperative as a stand-alone procedure if pain isn’t great and there is someone available to do one.