Glossopharyngeal nerve block versus tonsillar fossa ropivacaine infiltration within multimodal analgesia for…

Cohort studyEuropean archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery· Aug 2026

Glossopharyngeal nerve block versus tonsillar fossa ropivacaine infiltration within multimodal analgesia for pediatric post-tonsillectomy pain: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Mohammad Faramarzi, Maryam Nemati, Arash Farbood, Ali Faramarzi

Read paper

Regional AnesthesiaCohort studyTreatmentQ2IF 2.5

Glossopharyngeal nerve block doubled time to first pain medication after tonsillectomy in children

Glossopharyngeal nerve block versus tonsillar fossa ropivacaine infiltration within multimodal analgesia for pediatric post-tonsillectomy pain: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Mohammad Faramarzi … Ali Faramarzi

European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology · Aug 2026 · Q2 in General Medicine

Purpose

Pediatric tonsillectomy is associated with substantial postoperative pain.

Methods

In this double-blind randomized trial, 90 children (4-10 years) undergoing day-case tonsillectomy were randomly allocated in a 1:1:1 ratio (30 per group) to receive bilateral glossopharyngeal nerve block with 0.2% ropivacaine, ropivacaine infiltration with 0.2% ropivacaine, or sham control.

n = 90 children

Results

pain relief needed twice as long after the nerve block

GNB

240min

Control

120min

More results

Pain at rest was lower with glossopharyngeal nerve block than control from 2 to 12 h and lower than ropivacaine infiltration at 6 h, and swallowing pain was lower with glossopharyngeal nerve block than both comparators from 2 to 24 h (all P ≤ 0.008) .

More results

Nausea was less frequent with glossopharyngeal nerve block (6.7%) than ropivacaine infiltration (20%) or control (33.3%) (P = 0.036), and sleep quality and parental satisfaction were higher with glossopharyngeal nerve block (P = 0.010 and P < 0.001).

“

Conclusion

Within the studied multimodal analgesic regimen, bilateral glossopharyngeal nerve block with 0.2% ropivacaine was associated with lower postoperative pain scores, improved swallowing comfort, longer time to first rescue analgesia, and better caregiver-reported outcomes in this randomized cohort, without increased sedation or observed major anesthetic-related complications.

Glossopharyngeal nerve block versus tonsillar fossa ropivacaine infiltration within multimodal analgesia for pediatric post-tonsillectomy pain: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Glossopharyngeal nerve block versus tonsillar fossa ropivacaine infiltration within multimodal analgesia for pediatric post-tonsillectomy pain: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Related papers