Efficacy of Intravenous Paracetamol and Ibuprofen on Postoperative Pain and Morphine Consumption in Lumbar Disc Surgery: Prospective, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

• Published in: Neuro-chirurgie Vol. 67; no. 6; pp. 533 - 539
• Main Authors: Akbas, S., Ozkan, A.S., Durak, M.A., Yologlu, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: France Elsevier Masson SAS 01.11.2021
• Subjects: Anesthesiology; Intravenous ibuprofen; Neurosurgery; Paracetamol; Postoperative pain; Spine surgery; Intravenous ibuprofen; Postoperative pain; Paracetamol; Anesthesiology; Neurosurgery; Spine surgery; intravenous ibuprofen; spine surgery; paracetamol; anesthesiology; neurosurgery; postoperative pain
• ISSN: 0028-3770; 1773-0619
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuchi.2021.04.019

•Effective postoperative pain management in lumbar disc surgery may reduce complications and improve postoperative care.•Side effects such as sedation, respiratory depression, nausea-vomiting, pruritus and urinary retention that develop secondary to opioids may also be reduced by the combination of supplemental analgesics.•Intravenous ibuprofen is the first and only IV NSAID approved for both pain and fever control in adults.•Pain scores and morphine consumption were significantly reduced by IV ibuprofen as a supplemental analgesic when compared with controls and paracetamols. Effective postoperative pain management after lumbar disc surgery reduces complications and improves postoperative care. The purpose of this prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study is to evaluate the effects of IV paracetamol and ibuprofen on postoperative pain, morphine consumption and side effects of morphine in patients who underwent lumbar disc surgery. Seventy-five patients aged 18-85 years scheduled for lumbar disk surgery with a single level laminectomy included in this study. All patients received morphine with an IV patient-controlled analgesia device during the first postoperative 24hour. The patients were divided randomly and double-blinded into three groups (control, paracetamol and ibuprofen). The demographic characteristics and procedure data, VAS score, cumulative morphine consumption, opioid-related side effects were recorded. There was no significant difference regarding to demographic characteristics, comorbidities, and durations of anesthesia and surgery. There was a significant difference between all groups regarding to total morphine consumption (P<0.001). IV ibuprofen significantly reduced the total morphine consumption in comparison with control and paracetamol (P<0.001). Repeated measures ANOVA showed in all periods of the study that VAS score was significantly lower in ibuprofen (P<0.001), but not in paracetamol (P=0.394) in comparison with control. There was no difference between groups regarding postoperative heart rate, mean arterial pressure, nausea-vomiting, pruritus and urinary retention. This study showed that pain scores and morphine consumption, but not the side effects of patient-controlled analgesia during 24hours after the lumbar disk surgery, were significantly reduced by IV ibuprofen as a supplemental analgesic when compared with controls and paracetamols.