Eligibility Criteria
To determine study eligibility, we used the following PICOS criteria:
cardiac surgical patients (age >18 y) requiring median
sternotomy (P), single-shot ultrasound-guided RA technique (I), placebo
or no intervention (C), 24-h postoperative opioid consumption, pain
after extubation 12 h, pain after extubation 24 h, postoperative nausea
and vomiting (PONV), extubation time, intensive care unit discharge
time, hospital length of stay (LOS) (O), and randomized controlled
trials (RCTs) (S).
Studies were excluded if they met the following additional criteria: 1)
the use of RA techniques in combination, 2) the use of continuous RA
techniques, 3) minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and 4) off-pump
cardiac surgery.