Abstract

This is a prospective randomised control trial to find a difference in the pain score between two different nerve block techniques;Group A: Infra-trochlear + Infra-orbital & Group B: Anterior-ethmoidal nerve blocks in external DCR. The study included patients with PANDO, age >18 years & who responded to the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Patients with acute dacryocystitis, adverse drug reactions or surgical complications & those undergoing revision surgery were excluded. Primary outcome measure is the difference in intra-operative pain score as perceived by the patients. 112 patients were included till 31.10.2023; 56 in each group. The mean age of patients(in years)( Gr A: 54.3; Gr B: 54.4), the duration of surgery(in minutes)( Gr A: 39.8; Gr B: 40.1) were comparable. The respective pre, intra & post-operative pain scores were also comparable ( Gr A : 4,5,3; Gr B: 5,5,3). Both techniques have similar pain scores in the interim analysis; p = 0.63 for the intra-operative pain score