Papers of the Week

Acute abdominal pain is one of the most common complaints that patients present with in the emergency room and has long been a challenge to effectively manage without relying on opioid analgesia. The use of ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve blocks (UGRA) represents a new frontier in multimodal pain control regimens in the acute setting. An erector spinae plane (ESP) block is believed to mediate pain relief in multiple dermatomes through blockage of both visceral and somatic nerves. Analgesia provided by a single injection can help keep a patient comfortable for hours without breakthrough pain and the subsequent need for frequent redosing of opioid pain medication. To this date, there is very limited evidence of an ESP block in the utilization of acute appendicitis in the emergency department.