After spine surgery, postoperative pain could be moderate to severe for more than half of patients.Surgical trauma, neuropathy and inflammation are factors contributing to this.Erector spinae plane block is fascial plane block used widely for post operative analgesia of spine surgeries.This involves injecting a local anesthetic into the plane between the erector spinae muscle and the transverse process of the vertebra. The local anesthetic spreads on a plane caudally and cranially, allowing the sympathetic nerve fibers, as well as the spinal nerves’ dorsal and ventral rami to be blocked.Direct injection of morphine into the intrathecal space also allows to directly act on opioid receptors within the brain and substantia gelatinosa of the spinal cord resulting in a robust analgesia after spine surgeries.

The current study aimed to assess and compare the efficacy and safety of intrathecal morphine with erector spinae plane block in patients undergoing elective lumbar spine surgeries.A total of 100 patients aged between 18 and 65 years of either sex will be selected from the patients posted for elective lumbar spine surgery. Patients will be divided into two groups: Group A patients will receive 0.2 mg intrathecal morphine at any one space between L2-L5 level and Group B will receive bilateral erector spinae plane block at Lumbar level L1-L5  by using 40 mL of 0.25 % bupivacaine before starting the surgery for postoperative analgesia. In the perioperative period, pain will be assessed by hemodynamic parameters (heart rate and mean arterial pressure,SpO2), visual analogue scale and patient satisfaction score. Time to first rescue analgesic requirement and incidence of any adverse events will also be noted.