Abstract

Sumit Beniwal* and Satish Chaudhary

ABSTRACT

Introduction: One of the most important and pressuring issue in the field of anesthesia and surgery is effective control of postoperative pain. It has significant impact on our health care system. Millions of people worldwide who undergo operations each year experience postoperative pain of varying intensity. Aims and Objectives: To evaluate postoperative analgesic benefit in patients administered pregabalin or clonidine or placebo as oral premedication for below umbilical surgeries performed under SAB. Material and Methods: The study was carried out in 90 patients scheduled for Elective below Umbilical Surgeries, with estimated duration of surgery 90-120 minutes, to be performed under SAB. Patients in treatment group were given Tab. Pregabalin 300mg or Tab. Clonidine 150mcg or placebo one hour before commencement of surgery. Statistical analysis was done and compared among groups. Results: The age in our study was 18-65 years. The comparison of total duration of analgesia in three groups was statistically significant. The mean duration in control group was 264.83 ± 13.67 minutes, mean duration of total analgesia in clonidine group was 492.66 ±78.29 and duration of total analgesia in pregabalin group was 632.83 ±103.95 minutes. Total dose of analgesic required in 24 hours in all the three groups was significant; p-value is 0.00 which was highly significant if compared with control group, else amongst CL & PG group it was also significant (p-value 0.016). The lowest VAS score was in pregabalin group at 30 minutes postoperatively and maximum seen at 12 hrs postoperatively followed by clonidine group and maximum was seen in control group. Conclusion: Clonidine hydrochloride 150 ?g and pregabalin 300mg was found to be effective in reducing postoperative pain when given 1 hour preoperatively. Pregabalin proved to have a better analgesic effect than clonidine, reducing the total consumption of rescue analgesic and prolonging first rescue dose. Both the drugs are good alternative to each other and can be used safely as preemptive analgesia under SAB.