The effect of supplementary regional anesthesia in cancer resection surgery

What is it about?

Studies have reported that general anesthesia (GA), especially volatile agents were associated with higher cancer recurrence rate after cancer resection surgery. However, the effect of supplementary regional anesthesia (RA) in reducing the use of anesthetic agents on oncological outcomes remains unclear. The primary aim of this meta-analysis was to examine the effect of adjunctive use of RA on the cancer recurrence rate in adults undergoing cancer resection surgery.

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Why is it important?

Six RCTs (n = 3139 patients) were included. In comparison to the GA alone, our meta-analysis demonstrated no significant difference in the cancer recurrence rate in patients who received the adjunctive use of RA in the routine care of GA (3 studies, n = 2380 patients; odds ratio 0.93, 95%CI 0.63–1.39, ρ = 0.73, certainty of evidence = very low). Our review also showed no significant difference in cancer-related mortality (2 studies, n = 545; odds ratio 1.20, 95%CI 0.83–1.74, ρ = 0.33, certainty of evidence = low), all-cause mortality (3 studies, n = 2653; odds ratio 0.98, 95%CI 0.69–1.39, ρ = 0.89, certainty of evidence = low) and duration of cancer-free survival (2 studies, n = 659; mean difference 0.00 years, 95%CI -0.25-0.25, ρ = 1.00, certainty of evidence = high).

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