Invited author response to editorials on liposomal bupivacaine in minimally-invasive thoracic surgery: the judge is in favor but the jury is still out

We appreciate the insightful editorials by Martin and Mehran (1) and Caso and Marshall (2) regarding our recent manuscript (3), which described a decreased length of stay (LOS) in patients receiving intercostal nerve blocks with liposomal bupivacaine (LB) (Exparel^®) compared to standard bupivacaine after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) or minimally-invasive esophagectomy (MIE). Both articles raise a number of interesting points, and we would like to clarify some details of our study and expand on their discussion.