The effect of obturator nerve blockade on oncological outcomes of patients with lateral wall localized non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of obturator nerve blockade on oncological outcomes of patients with a diagnosis of lateral wall localized non- muscle invasive bladder cancer. Materials and Methods: One hundred six patients diagnosed with lateral wall localized non-invasive bladder cancer were evaluated between January 2015 and March 2020 in this retrospective, cross-sectional observational study. The patients were divided into two groups: patients receiving only spinal anesthesia and those receiving spinal anesthesia combined with ultrasound-guided obturator nerve blockade. Oncological outcomes of the groups were compared statistically. Results: We observed recurrent tumors in 25 patients (45.5%) in Group 1 and 11 patients (21.6%) in Group 2. Additionally, we observed tumor progression in eight patients (14.5%) in Group 1 and two patients (3.9%) in Group 2. We observed statistical significance in differences between groups regarding tumor size, recurrence rate, adequate muscle tissue sampling, ability for complete resection, and persistent obturator reflex. The efficacy rate of obturator blockade was 92.1% in Group 2. One-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) was 98.0% and 5-year RFS was 23.5% for Group 1, while for Group 2, they were 97.4% and 57.2%, respectively. Conclusion: The obturator reflex is a common and challenging reflex that may cause major complications and result in unintended consequences, such as incomplete resection or tumor recurrence with transurethral resection of bladder tumors. In this study, we demonstrated that combining spinal anesthesia with obturator nerve blockade for lateral wall localized non-muscle invasive bladder cancer may prevent tumor recurrence and reduce peroperative complications.