Efficacy of Postoperative Pain Management Using Continuous Local Anesthetic Infusion at the Iliac Crest Bone Graft Site in Patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Parallel, Double-Blinded, Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial

12 adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis were included in this pilot study and randomized to receive either continuous infusion of anesthetic (0.25% levobupivacaine) or saline at the iliac crest bone graft (ICBG) donor site for the purpose of assessing effect on postoperative donor site pain, overall pain, potential donor site complication, and adverse effects throughout a five-day post-surgery period. Results demonstrated a decrease in ipsilateral and contralateral iliac crest pain between groups, favouring the local anesthetic group, however, the statistical significance of this difference was not reported. An additional large-scale randomized trial, that performs and meets an a priori sample size calculation, is needed to further evaluate the use of continuous anesthetic infusion at the donor site in this patient population.