Postoperative Morphine Consumption After Caesarean Section- TAP Block vs Intracutaneous Infiltration

Caesarean section is one of the most common surgical procedures in the world and postoperative pain afflicts both mother and the newborn- especially the first 48 hours after birth. Pain management at the investigators hospital is multimodal (balanced analgesia). Peroperatively the wound is infiltrated with local anaesthetic performed by the obstetrician at the end of the procedure. Postoperatively the patient gets routinely a combination of Paracetamol and NSAID's orally and Morphine intravenously as required. The side-effects of Morphine (nausea, vomiting, itching and sedation) do interfere, dose dependent, with the interaction between mother and child, breastfeeding and postpartum experience. Previous studies have compared transversus abdominis plane block (TAP block) with reduction of morphine consumption in C-section (up to 50%! (1,2). So far no one has compared TAP-block with local infiltration in C-section patients. Ultrasound guided TAP-block is done by an anaesthesiologist at the end of the operation, and it is viewed as a safe and easy procedure to perform. The investigators assumption is that the TAP-block reduces the morphine consumption with 50% as compared to local infiltration. Due to maximal dosage of Bupivacaine, it is not possible to give both types of anaesthesia at the same time.