Analgesic effect of low gynaecological surgery under general anaesthesia.

Author(s): Chowdhury L, Chakraborty S, Chakrabarti J, Bhattacharya D, Mandals M

Affiliation(s): Department of Pharmacology, IPGME&R, Kolkata 700020.

Publication date & source: 2010-11, J Indian Med Assoc., 108(11):734-7.

Publication type: Randomized Controlled Trial

Gabapentin has been used in the treatment of neuropathic pain as well as postoperative pain with good result. This study was done to investigate the effect of gabapentin in day-case gynaecological surgery under general anaesthesia. A randomised, placebo controlled, double blind study was undertaken on 200 patients of ASA I and II, aged 20 and 50 years, body weight of 50 +/- 0.06 kg undergoing day case gynaecological surgery under general anaesthesia. Group-A (n=100) patients received oral gabapentin 300mg and group-B (n = 100) received placebo orally 2 hours before surgery. Postoperative pain was assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS) at 1st hour, 3rd hour, and 6th hour following surgery. Injection diclofenac sodium 75 mg intramuscularly was used as rescue analgesic when VAS was > 4cm or on demand. Group-A patients showed lower VAS scores than the patients in group-B at 1st, 3rd and 6th hours postoperatively (p < 0.05). Moreover the total amount of rescue analgesic required in the immediate postoperative period observed for six hours was much higher in the group-B patients than in the patients in group-A (p <0.05). To conclude, the study showed that gabapentin used in low dose has got analgesic efficacy in the patients following day-case gynaecological surgery under general anaesthesia and has also significantly reduced the total requirement of rescue analgesic in the immediate postoperative period.