Trial reportThe Kaohsiung journal of medical sciences2026
Ultrasound-Guided Liposomal vs. Conventional Bupivacaine Erector Spinae Plane Block Plus Gabapentin for Postherpetic Neuralgia.
Trial report in The Kaohsiung journal of medical sciences, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
This study aimed to compare efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided erector spinae plane block (ESPB) using liposomal (LB) versus conventional bupivacaine (CB), each plus standardized gabapentin, in patients with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). A total of 116 PHN patients were randomized to ESPB-LB or ESPB-CB; both groups received standardized gabapentin. The primary outcome was resting pain assessed by Numeric Rating Scale (NRS). Secondary outcomes were 72-h event-free time (time to first rescue medication or resting NRS ≥ 4), cumulative rescue opioid exposure in morphine milligram equivalents (MME), sleep by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), health-related quality of life by the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC), and adverse events (AEs). ESPB-LB achieved lower resting NRS at day 1, day 3 and day 7 (all p < 0.05), with no between-group differences at day 30 or day 60. Event-free time favored LB (median 54.10 h vs. 18.95 h; log-rank p = 0.002). LB reduced cumulative MME at 48 h and 72 h, with convergence by days 7-60. PGIC favored LB at days 7 and 30, converging by day 60. Sleep and health-related quality of life improved similarly with no between-group differences; AEs were comparable, and no serious events occurred through day 60. In PHN, ESPB-LB plus gabapentin provided an early advantage characterized by superior early analgesia, higher early responder rates, longer opioid-free analgesia within 72 h, and short-term opioid sparing versus ESPB-CB, while longer-term outcomes and safety profiles were similar between groups.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.