The Effect of Magnesium Sulfate on Renal Colic Pain Relief; a Randomized Clinical Trial

Renal colic can be managed by preventing the contraction movements of ureter muscles. By reducing the acetylcholine in the nerve terminals,magnesium sulfate could be effective in this regard. The aimof this study is to investigate the effect ofmagnesium sulfate on acute renal colic pain relief.

The present study was a double-blind clinical trial in which the patients suffering from acute renal colic were randomly divided into 2 groups of who were received standard protocol (intravenous infusion of 0.1mg/Kg morphine sulfate, 30 mg of Ketorolac, and 100 ml normal saline as placebo/15 minutes) or standard protocol plus 15 mg/Kg of intravenous magnesium sulfate 50%/100 ml normal saline/15 minutes. Severity of patients’ pain was measured by visual analogue scale (VAS) at baseline, and 30 and 60 minutes after infusion. The collected data were analyzed using STATA statistical software.

100 cases were randomly allocated to intervention or control group. The two groups were similar in baseline pain score and demographic characteristics. At 30 and 60 minutes, mean pain score was less in the intervention groupcompare to the control group. Moreover, the difference between the two groups was statistically significant regarding the additional amount of morphine, suggesting that the intervention group needed less additional morphine than the control group.

The results of this study indicated that magnesium sulfate can be used as an adjunct drug in treatment of patients suffering from renal colic. It can reduce the pain and diminish the need for additional doses of morphine sulfate without disturbing hemodynamic measures. However, the amounts of these effects are not clinically significant.