Background: Opioids have traditionally been the primary treatment for managing pain during surgical procedures.
Regrettably, there have been recent concerns regarding the potential adverse consequences of these substances. The
introduction of opioid-free anesthesia aimed to offer a safer option that would yield advantages and facilitate postoperative recovery. This study's principal goal is to conduct a comparative analysis of the effects of intraperitoneal lidocaine injection and traditional analgesics only in the treatment of postoperative pain following laparoscopic bariatric surgeries.
Patients and Methods: At a tertiary hospital, a prospective comparative study was carried out on a cohort of 50 individuals suffering from obesity with a body mass index (BMI) of 35 kg/m2. These patients were undergoing laparoscopic bariatric procedures. They were segregated into two distinct groups: in group A, a total of 25 patients were administered a solution consisting of 20 ml of lidocaine 2% diluted with 500 ml of normal saline for intraperitoneal irrigation along the stappled residual portion of the stomach and/or anastomosis area. In group B, 25 patients were solely administered analgesics.
Results: There is a statistically significantly lower pain score at recovery, at 4 h and at 24 h in patients treated by
intraperitoneal lidocaine than those treated by analgesics.
Conclusion: Our results showed that intraperitoneal lidocaine administration showed lower pain scores and was more
effective compared with analgesics exclusively for managing pain during laparoscopic bariatric surgeries.