Background and Aim
Surgical trauma is known to cause peripheral and central sensitization and hyperalgesia, which if untreated can cause chronic postoperative pain after surgery. The current work was conducted to evaluate the effect of preoperative pregabalin 150 mg orally on opioid consumption and acute postoperative pain in spinal fusion surgery.
Methods
Over one-year duration between 2020 and 2021, the current study was conducted. Ninety patients who were scheduled for spinal fusion surgeries (single and double levels) were recruited and randomly subdivided into two equal groups who received either pregabalin or placebo. The primary outcome was the overall amount of consumed morphine in the first 24 hours postoperatively. Secondary outcomes included VAS score at 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours and 24 hours postoperative, time to first rescue analgesia and vital signs including heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure intra- and postoperatively.
Results
The overall amount of morphine consumed in the first 24 hours postoperatively was significantly lower in the pregabalin group than the placebo group ( < 0.001). Pregabalin group had significantly longer time to rescue analgesia than placebo group ( < 0.001). Additionally, within the first postoperative 24 hours, VAS was significantly lower ( < 0.05) in the pregabalin group than in the placebo group.
Conclusions
A single dose of 150 mg of pregabalin preoperatively may have the ability to reduce the acute postoperative pain and opioids consumption after spinal fusion surgeries.