Comparison between effect of lidocaine, morphine and ketamine spray on post-tonsillectomy pain in children

An effective pain therapy to block or modify the physiological responses to stress has become an essential component of modern pediatric anesthesia and surgical practice.

The goal of this study was to compare the analgesic effects of the spray forms of; lidocaine, morphine, ketamine, and normal saline on post-tonsillectomy pain scores in children.

A total of 120 children, American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) class I-II, scheduled for elective tonsillectomy were enrolled in this double-blind, clinical trial study. They were randomly divided into 4 groups, each receiving one of the following drugs at the end of operation; lidocaine spray (2 mg/kg); morphine spray (0.05 mg/kg); ketamine spray (0.5 mg/kg); or normal saline spray (8 puffs). For comparison of postoperative pain; the face, legs, activity, cry, consolability (FLACC) pain scale was evaluated during the first one hour of recovery period at 20 minutes intervals. The data was transferred to SPSS-10 software and analyzed statistically with the Scheffe test and Dunnett's T3 test. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

IN THE EARLY POSTOPERATIVE PERIOD (TIME: 0) and at 20, 40 and 60 minutes of recovery time, FLACC scale scores in the control group were higher than in the three other groups. At 20 minutes, the FLACC scale score in the lidocaine group was lower than in the other groups. At 40 minutes, the statistical differences between FLACC scales of the lidocaine, morphine and ketamine groups were not significant (P > 0.05). Finally, at 60 minutes, the FLACC scale scores of the ketamine and morphine groups were lower than in the other groups.

The results of this study showed that lidocaine spray had the best pain controlling effect at 20 minutes in the recovery room, but after 40 minutes, ketamine and morphine sprays were more effective than the lidocaine spray.