Evaluation of Oral Gabapentin Premedication on Postoperative Pain After Thoracotomy

Gabapentin is one of the anticonvulsive drugs which can be effective for the management of painful situations such as neuropathies, post herpetic neuralgias and perioperative pains. In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy of 600 mg oral gabapentin administered as a premedication on post thoracotomy pain and total morphine consumption. Patients and In this randomized placebo controlled clinical trial study, eighty patients who were candidates for thoracotomy were enrolled in two groups: gabapentine and control. In gabapentin group, the patients received oral gabapentin (600 mg) as a single dose before operation. Patient sampling was by simple and random method. All of the patients had the same general anesthesia protocol (TIVA, infusion of propofol and remifentanil). For postoperative pain control, intravenous Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) with morphine was used. After the operation the pain score in recovery and 1, 6, 12 and 24 hours after surgery was assessed by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The amount of morphine consumption and side effects during the first 24 hours after surgery were also evaluated. In this study we used Chi-square, † and repeated measurement tests for data analysis. SPSS V.13 was also used for data analysis. Average morphine consumption in gabapentin group was 21.9±9.2 mg and in control group was 24.5±4.5 mg that had statistical significant difference (p=0.003). The pain score (VAS) during the recovery time and the first hour after operation in gabapentin group was significantly lower than the patients in control group (p<0.001), but in the next hours it was not significant. Demographic data were not significantly different between the two groups. Also, significant difference was not detected in regard to other complications. Our data showed that a single dose of 600 mg oral gabapentin as a premedication could reduce first hour postoperative pain and total morphine consumption in patients undergoing thoracotomy without having any significant side effects.