Transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block versus standard analgesia for postoperative pain following open upper abdominal surgery through a midline incision: a protocol for a prospective randomized controlled trial.

Authors

Jihen Krichen, Asma Sghaier, Slah Soui, Sihem Sendi, Maroua Naoui, Bilel Faidi, Khalil Ben Salah, Amine Felhi, Oumayma Khechini, Imen Bannour

Published in

Future science OA. Volume 12. Issue 1. Pages 2754220. Epub Nov 10, 2026.

Abstract

To determine whether bilateral ultrasound-guided subcostal transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block, added to standardized non-opioid multimodal analgesia, reduces early pain after open upper midline laparotomy.
In this single-center, parallel-group randomized controlled superiority trial, 108 adults undergoing elective open upper abdominal surgery through a midline incision will be randomized 1:1 (stratified by procedure category) to TAP block (bupivacaine 0.25%, 30 mL per side, maximum 2.5 mg/kg) plus multimodal analgesia or multimodal analgesia alone. Outcome assessors and the statistician will be blinded; no sham block is used. The primary outcome is pain at rest on a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS), averaged over 6, 12 and 24 h after surgery. Secondary outcomes include movement-evoked pain, Quality of Recovery-15 (QoR-15), consumption of each rescue analgesic, postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), time to ambulation, time to first flatus and adverse events (actively monitored until 48 h after surgery or hospital discharge, whichever is later).
The primary effect will be estimated by intention-to-treat using a mixed model for repeated measures, as the equally weighted mean between-group difference with 95% confidence interval.
This trial will quantify the incremental benefit of subcostal TAP block in a defined surgical population.
Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (www.pactr.org) identifier is PACTR202608546707144.
Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR; www.pactr.org), PACTR202608546707144, registered on 18 August 2026.

PMID:
43008107
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 11 Nov 2026.

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