Implementation of Adjuvants in Intercostal Nerve Blockades for Thoracoscopic Surgery in Pulmonary Cancer Patients

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is a minimally invasive routine procedure. It's less invasive than thoracotomy but postoperative pain is still a problem. At Aalborg University Hospital, intercostal blockades with bupivacaine is used as standard pain treatment for patients undergoing VATS. Adding adjuvants to the blockades may prolong the effect. The aim of this study is to investigate if intercostal nerve blockade with adjuvants (intravenous (IV) dexamethasone) will result in better pain management. The primary plan was to evaluate the effect of adding IV dexamethasone and perineural adrenaline, but due to adverse effects, adrenaline was first reduced and later removed from the intervention (amendment protocol N-20200040 approved by the Ethics Committee of Northern Jutland on February 2nd 2021).