Approach and Troubleshooting to Anterior Truncal Blocks

Anterior trunk or the anterior abdominal wall blocks are one of the common blocks for the surgery of the abdomen. The blocks, namely transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block, rectus sheath block (RSB), the lower abdomen nerves ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerve block are blocked in the interfascial compartments of the anterior abdominal wall muscles. The fascial plane blocks are performed as a part of multimodal analgesia technique for postoperative pain management for open and laparoscopic abdominal surgeries. This chapter describes the functional anatomy, approaches, indications, and contraindications of the anterior truncal blocks with a stepwise approach and their troubleshooting.