Comparison of Effect of Promethazine and Diclofenac on Pain Control of Appendectomy Surgery: A Randomized Cclinical Trial

Pain after surgery, especially in appendectomy, is one of the most common causes of patients’ dissatisfaction. Regarding common side effects of existing analgesics, the researchers decided to replace conventional medicine for overcoming postoperative pain in such patients. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the pain relief effects of diclofenac and promethazine in patients with appendectomy.
Materials & Methodes: This triple blind clinical trial was performed on 60 patients of 49 -15 years old undergoing appendectomy in Shahid Doctor Beheshti Hospital of Sabzevar in 2012. Participants were selected by convenience sampling and randomly divided into two 30-cases groups of control and intervention, respectively received diclofenac promethazine by muscle depth injection in Dursuglutyal muscle. According to the standard numeric pain scale, the pain was investigated in the first hours after treatment. Data were analyzed using the Pearson chi-square test and SPSS version 18, and the level of significance was selected as 0.05.
The difference of postoperative pain relief was significant (P=0/018) between the two groups at a half an hour. The average amount of pain in half an hour after injection of diclofenac and promethazine were 5.04± 2.26 and 3.96 ± 1.33, respectively. Also, the average amount of pain in one hour after injection of diclofenac and promethazine were 4.59 ± 5/31 and 3.30 ± 1.33, respectively. However, the differences were not statistically significant (P = 0.177).
Promethazine is of greater analgesic efficacy than diclofenac. Therefore, a basic planing is recommended for the use of phenothiazines instead of highly morbid analgesics like non -steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.