Letter to the Editor in Response to: Comparing Efficacy of Different Regional Analgesia Methods for Pediatric Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

jpedsurg.org

With great interest we read the recent article by Mannava and colleagues [1], which compared postoperative analgesic efficacy of transversus abdominis plane block and local anesthetic wound infiltration for pediatric laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The primary outcome of this study was postoperative opioid consumption, but the sample size estimation used a small-to-medium effect size for binary outcomes, including presence or absence of gastrointestinal symptoms and use of pain medications after discharge.

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Article · Jan 2024 · 1 min read

In brief

This correspondence critiques methodology in a comparative study of regional analgesia techniques for pediatric laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The authors question the sample size calculation approach used to evaluate postoperative opioid consumption and analgesic efficacy between TAP blocks and local wound infiltration.

Study compared TAP block vs local infiltration for pain control in pediatric laparoscopic cholecystectomy
Primary outcome was opioid consumption, but sample size calculated using binary secondary outcomes
Methodological concern: mismatch between continuous primary outcome and binary sample size calculation may affect study power

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