Does the Common Practice of Adding Diluted Epinephrine in Tranverse Abdominal Plan Block to Ropivacaine Significantly Decrease the Peak Systemic Resorption of Ropivacaine? (ROPIVADRE)

Locoregional anesthesia techniques are now widely recommended in perioperative multimodal analgesia protocols. The transverse abdominal plane block (TAP block), which consists of the injection of a local anesthetic in the vascular-nervous plane between the internal oblique muscle and the transverse abdominal muscle, has seen a significant increase in abdominal surgery with the advent of ultrasound guidance. Aimed at blocking the nerves destined to the antero-lateral abdominal wall, it has shown a benefit in several abdominopelvic surgeries with in particular a reduction of pain and a morphine sparing during the 24 postoperative hours as well as a shortening of the delay of resumption of the intestinal transit.

Ropivacaine is the molecule of choice in transverse abdominal plane block because of its better safety profile among long-acting local anesthetics. Nevertheless, transverse abdominal plane block using ropivacaine has a risk of systemic toxicity, correlated to the peak systemic resorption of the local anesthetic, whose low incidence is probably underestimated in patients under general anesthesia.

In this context, the addition of diluted adrenaline to the ropivacaine solution is a common practice in loco-regional anesthesia, including transverse abdominal plane block, to increase the duration of the peripheral block and reduce the peak plasma concentration of the local anesthetic.

The objective of our study is to compare the pharmacokinetics of total and free ropivacaine administered in transverse abdominal plane block at the minimum effective dosage of 1 mg/kg without and with the addition of epinephrine at the concentration of 1:200000 (5 µg/mL) in patients scheduled for laparoscopic colectomy. The hypothesis is a significant reduction in the mean maximum concentration (Cmax) of total or free plasma ropivacaine in the adrenalized block transverse abdominal plane group.

The practical applications in case of verification of the hypothesis are the provision of an argument to recommend the systematic adrenalization of the transverse abdominal plane block with ropivacaine in the interest of patient safety and the prospect of a downward reassessment of the minimum time to be respected between the administration of a transverse abdominal plane block with ropivacaine and that of another locoregional anesthesia.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Bowel Disease
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: pharmacokinetic analysis

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 40
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Alpes-Maritimes
    • Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France, 06001
      • CHU de nice - Anesthésie Réanimation

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adults (≥ 18 years) scheduled for laparoscopic colectomy
• Physical status score ( American Society of Anesthesiologists) ≤ 3
• Non-obese (Body Mass Index < 30)
• Affiliated with a social security plan
• Having signed an informed consent
• Normal preoperative electrocardiogram including, but not limited to, a non-extended QTc interval (< 0.45 s in men and < 0.47 s in women).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Presence of a contraindication for local anesthesia (injection site infection, coagulopathy)
• Known allergy to local anesthetics
• Known renal or hepatic insufficiency
• Pregnant or breastfeeding women
• Medical or psychiatric condition that makes communication difficult
• Chronic use of drugs that interfere with CYP1A2 metabolism of ropivacaine such as fluvoxamine (a potent CYP1A2 inhibitor)
• Chronic use of opioids or other treatments for chronic pain
• Chronic use of anti-arrhythmic drug(s) or drugs that can prolong the QTc space such as haloperidol, amiodarone, sotalol, etc.
• Protected persons defined in the following articles of the public health code:

L. 1121-6: persons deprived of liberty by a judicial or administrative decision, persons hospitalized without consent and persons admitted to a health or social institution for purposes other than research; L. 1121-8: adults subject to a legal protection measure or unable to express their consent; L. 1122-1-2: persons in emergency situations who are unable to give prior consent.

- Patients participating in other research involving the human person.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Ropivacaine; Patients receive 0.5 mg/kg of actual weight of ropivacaine; the appropriate dose of ropivacaine is drawn from an ampoule of 0.5% ropivacaine, i.e., 5 mg/mL (example for a 75 kg individual: 7.5 mL in each syringe) In the "Ropivacaine only" group, there is no adrenaline, the syringe loaded with ropivacaine is supplemented to 20 mL with a 0.9% sodium chloride solution	Other: pharmacokinetic analysis; Non-compartmental descriptive pharmacokinetic analysis (i.e. without the need for mathematical modelling), with determination of the pharmacokinetic parameters of interest either directly from the experimental points (Cmax, Tmax), or from simple mathematical equations (calculation of the area under the curve (AUC) by the trapezoidal method, calculation of the terminal slope of elimination)
Experimental: Ropivacaine + Epinephrine; Patients receive 0.5 mg/kg of actual weight of ropivacaine; the appropriate dose of ropivacaine is drawn from an ampoule of 0.5% ropivacaine, i.e., 5 mg/mL (example for a 75 kg individual: 7.5 mLn each syringe) In the "ropivacaine + epinephrine" group, 0.1 mL of a 1 mg/mL ampoule of epinephrine is added to each syringe before making up to 20 mL (i.e., 100 µg of epinephrine for 20 mL of final solution, i.e., 5 µg/mL, i.e., 1 : 200000).	Other: pharmacokinetic analysis; Non-compartmental descriptive pharmacokinetic analysis (i.e. without the need for mathematical modelling), with determination of the pharmacokinetic parameters of interest either directly from the experimental points (Cmax, Tmax), or from simple mathematical equations (calculation of the area under the curve (AUC) by the trapezoidal method, calculation of the terminal slope of elimination)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Difference in mean peak concentrations (Cmax) of total and free plasma ropivacaine after transversus abdominis plane block between both groups	Difference between the mean peak concentrations (Cmax) of total and free plasma ropivacaine after transversus abdominis plane block 1 mg/kg of both transversus abdominis plane block-adrenaline+ and transversus abdominis plane block-adrenaline- groups (before and 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 180, and 240 minutes after transversus abdominis plane block).	240 minutes after transversus abdominis plane block

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Difference in mean Tmax of total and free plasma ropivacaine between the two groups	Difference in mean Tmax (time to maximum concentration Cmax) of total and free plasma ropivacaine between the two groups transversus abdominis plane block-adrenaline+ and transversus abdominis plane block-adrenaline-	240 minutes after transversus abdominis plane block
Efficacy markers : pain visual analog scale	Collection of efficacy markers :pain visual analog scale. Score from 0 to 10. 0 being no pain and 10 being the maximum pain imaginable.	24 hours
Efficacy markers : morphine consumption	whether or not to use morphine during the 24 hours after surgery	24 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Romain ROZIER, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Rozier R, Le Guennec Y, Capdevila X, Le Louarn E, Balbo J, Lavrut T, Baque P, Perus O, Destere A, Maurice-Szamburski A. Impact of epinephrine on ropivacaine pharmacokinetics in TAP blocks: a randomized controlled trial. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2025 Mar 17:rapm-2025-106500. doi: 10.1136/rapm-2025-106500. Online ahead of print.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 6, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 19, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): November 6, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 28, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 1, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): July 13, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 24, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 20, 2026
• Last Verified: March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Digestive System Diseases; Gastrointestinal Diseases; Intestinal Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: 20-PP-28

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No