[Postoperative pain management in clinics of otolaryngology]

To investigate pain relieving efficacy of six agents which are used in postoperative pain management after otolaryngologic operations.

120 adult patients (63 females, 57 males; mean age 36; range 18 to 76 years) were included in the study. The same intraoperative anesthesia was applied to all the patients. The following medications were randomly given to the patients who declared pain in the sixth hour after the operation: naproxen sodium, meloxicam, rofecoxib, paracetamol, dipyrone, and etodolac in proper dosage to form groups of 20 for each medication. Before and after the application of pain reliever tablets, visual analog scale (VAS) and numerical rating scale (NRS) were used to inquire whether the agents were effective in relieving pain. ANOVA (one way), paired t-test, Kruskal-Wallis, and Student's t-test were used as statistical methods. p values <0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance.

All the groups had similar VAS values before medication (p>0.05). When VAS values of each group were assessed after medication, it was recorded that naproxen sodium (p=0.020) and meloxicam (p=0.001) were effective. When the difference of NRS values between "before medication" and "after medication" was compared among the groups, all the agents significantly changed NRS values, but no inter-group differences were found (p>0.05).

In terms of NRS scores, the effectiveness of six different analgesic agents which had been used to reduce postoperative pain was confirmed. Moreover, naproxen sodium and meloxicam were found to be more effective than the other agents when taken in the postoperative period for the adult patients according to VAS values.