Efficacy of Sodium Channel-Selective Analgesics in Postoperative, Neuralgia, and Neuropathy-Related Pain Management: A Systematic Review and Literature Review

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 26; no. 6; p. 2460
• Main Authors: Brooks, Athena, Hornbach, Anna, Smith, Jade E., Garbaccio, Noelle C., Keller, Nathan, Lemke, Jessica, Foppiani, Jose A., Gavlasova, Dominika, Lee, Theodore C., Buckley, Marie-Claire, Choudry, Umar, Lin, Samuel J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 10.03.2025; MDPI
• Subjects: Analgesics; Analgesics - therapeutic use; Analysis; Care and treatment; Chronic pain; Health aspects; Humans; Lacosamide; Literature reviews; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Narcotics; Neuralgia; Neuralgia - drug therapy; Pain; Pain management; Pain Management - methods; Pain, Postoperative - drug therapy; Patients; Recovery (Medical); Review; Roles; Sodium; Sodium Channel Blockers - therapeutic use; Subject heading schemes; Surgery; Systematic review; Treatment Outcome; Vocabularies & taxonomies; innovation; pain management; sodium channel-selective analgesics
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms26062460

Postoperative pain is a prevalent problem, often lasting from days to years. To minimize opioid use and associated risks of dependency, Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols increasingly incorporate multimodal analgesics. Sodium channel-selective blockers are a promising non-opioid alternative, yet their application in postoperative pain remains underexplored. This systematic review evaluates their efficacy in managing postoperative, neuropathic, and neuralgia-related pain. A systematic review was conducted using controlled keywords across multiple databases to identify studies on sodium channel-selective blockers published up to 2024. Eligible studies included clinical trials, observational studies, case series, and reports involving patients aged 18 or older. Data were extracted on therapeutic outcomes, dosages, complications, and comparisons with other analgesics. Five studies met the inclusion criteria, involving 804 patients, 81.58% of whom were women. One study addressed postoperative pain, while the remaining five focused on neuropathy- and neuralgia-related pain. All studies reported significant pain reduction in at least one treatment group compared with placebo. In the study on postoperative pain, the sodium channel-selective blocker significantly reduced pain scores without requiring opioid analgesia. Across all studies, only two patients needed concomitant opioid therapy, and one discontinued treatment due to adverse effects. Dosages varied, with no reports of severe complications. Comparative analyses showed that sodium channel-selective blockers were as effective, if not superior, to traditional pain medications in reducing pain intensity. Sodium channel-selective blockers demonstrate significant potential in pain management with minimal opioid reliance. While effective for neuropathic pain, further studies are essential to validate their role in acute postoperative settings and refine their use in multimodal analgesia regimens.