Comparison of sublingual buprenorphine and intravenous morphine on duration and severity of analgesia

Effective postoperative pain management is one of the anesthesia goals and there are benefits for rapid recovery and discharge from hospital. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of sublingual buprenorphine versus intravenous morphine on duration and severity of analgesia effects in patients undergoing inguinal herniorrhaphy.

During a single blind clinical trial, 80 patients ASA class 1 have been candidate for elective inguinal herniorrhaphy under spinal anesthesia were randomly divided into two groups equal. At the start of the surgery, one group was treated with sublingual buprenorphine (tablets 0.4 mg) and another group was treated with intravenous morphine (0.1 mg/kg). Patients were observed at the multi hours aftersurgery to record the time of pain onset and pain severity based on visual analog scale (VAS).

There was no significant difference between he mean ages of patients (p＞0.05). Comparison of ain onset during the first six hours after surgery and efore receiving the second dose of these drugs was howed a significant difference on increasing the uration of analgesia by the use of sublingual uprenorphine (p=0.001). The severity of pain during he 24 hours after surgery were lesser in sublingual uprenorphine group than IV morphine (p=0.001).

The result of this study showed sublingual uprenorphine is more effective than intravenous orphine in controlling pain.