This will be a randomized, triple-blinded, prospective, feasibility trial. Written informed consent will be obtained from all study participants prior to randomization. Patients scheduled to undergo cardiac surgery involving sternotomy at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist will be screened for eligibility. These patients will be approached for enrollment by research staff either during their preoperative assessment clinic visit prior to their surgery date, or when admitted as inpatients and scheduled for surgery. Subjects chosen to participate will be randomized into one or other arm and PIFB will be performed after skin closure and before transport from the operating room to the ICU. For patients who are randomized at enrollment but later excluded due to exclusion criteria prior to block placement, their randomization assignment will be replaced at the end of the initial recruitment.
The purpose of this randomized, triple-blinded, prospective, feasibility study is to compare postoperative analgesia provided by Pecto-intercostal Fascial Block (PIFB) when performed with local anesthetic solution with or without perineural adjuvants in patients following cardiac surgery involving sternotomy. The study team hypothesizes that the patients receiving PIFB with bupivacaine with epinephrine, clonidine, and dexamethasone will have lower dynamic pain over the first 36 hours compared to those receiving PIFB with just bupivacaine and epinephrine.