Breast cancer is the second most common in the world and the most frequent in the female population. In Italy, around 48,000 new cases were diagnosed in 2013. Every year patients undergoing surgical procedures in the region of the breast and armpit, like other surgical areas, report a significant incidence of acute postoperative pain which in 25-60% of cases can progress to chronic pain and therefore it needs a timely and effective control.
Breast surgery is associated with a high incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) whose etiology is multifactorial and includes factors such as age, type of intervention, positive history of PONV and, primarily, the amount of morphine used to ensure postoperative analgesia, the type of anesthesia and the intensity of postoperative pain.
The conventional anesthesiological approach to breast surgery involves the use of general anesthesia and postoperative analgesic therapy based on opiates and fans. Some techniques of locoregional anesthesia such as paravertebral block, thoracic peridural analgesia and intercostal block, associated with sedoanalgesia or general anesthesia, have joined the standard anesthesiological conduct helping to improve pain control, response to surgical stress, post-operative respiratory function, the incidence of thromboembolic events and it seems they can also contribute to reducing the incidence of distant metastases. In addition, making possible a reduced use of opiates further decrease the incidence of PONV. As part of this multimodal approach to anesthesia and analgesia for breast surgery, PECS Block I and II and the Serratus Plane Block (SPB) have recently been introduced into clinical practice.
