A study looking at pain control after surgery to the lung (ErLaPara Study)
Cancer type:
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This study looked at pain control after surgery for lung cancer or mesothelioma of the lung.
It was open for people to join between 2013 and 2014. The team published the results in 2019. There is a link to more information in the ‘Summary of results’ section below.
More about this trial
Doctors may use surgery to treat lung cancer and mesothelioma. They sometimes do a type of 
called video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS).
Any surgery to the chest and lung can be painful. After the operation, doctors use drugs to control the pain. They give this through a thin plastic tube that the surgeon places in your chest near the wound.
They usually start the local anaesthetic when they finish the operation. Researchers thought it might be better to start the anaesthetic earlier.
The people taking part were out into 2 groups at random:
- half had local anaesthetic soon after the beginning of surgery and a dummy drug (placebo) at the end of surgery
- half had a dummy drug soon after the beginning of surgery and local anaesthetic at the end of surgery
The main aim of this study was to find out if starting local anaesthetic soon after the beginning of surgery was better for pain relief.
Summary of results
We aim to add a lay summary of results to all the studies on our database. Unfortunately we have not been able to include a summary for this one.
There is more information about the results in the link below.
Please note, the information we link to here is not in plain English. It has been written for healthcare professionals and researchers.
Early Versus Late Paravertebral Block for Analgesia in Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Lung Resection. A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial
K Kamalanathan and others
Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia, 2019. Volume 33, issue 2, pages 453-459.
Recruitment start:
Recruitment end:
How to join a clinical trial
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Chief Investigator
Dr Kajan Kamalanathan
Supported by
David Telling Charitable Trust
United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust
If you have questions about the trial please contact our cancer information nurses
Freephone 0808 800 4040
