Thoracic surgical incisions can be associated with intense pain or discomfort. Postoperative thoracic pain may be multifactorial in origin. Inadequate analgesia causes respiratory dysfunction. Adequate analgesia preserves pulmonary function and may hasten recovery. Intravenous opioids are widely used but sufficient analgesia is seldom achieved in doses that permit safe spontaneous ventilation.

Thoracic regional anaesthesia provides profound analgesia, is opiate sparing and has minimal depressant effects on ventilation. Thoracic regional anaesthesia is both an effective alternative to systemic analgesics or can be used as part of a multimodal analgesic technique.