Postoperative analgesia for supratentorial craniotomy

The prevalence of moderate to severe pain is high in patients following craniotomy. Although optimal analgesic therapy is mandatory, there is no consensus regarding analgesic regimen for post-craniotomy pain exists. This study aimed to investigate the effects of morphine and non-opioid analgesics on postcraniotomy pain.

This prospective, randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study included eighty three patients (ASA 1, II, and III) scheduled for elective supratentorial craniotomy. Intravenous dexketoprofen, paracetamol and metamizol were investigated for their effects on pain intensity, morphine consumption and morphine related side effects during the first 24h following supratentorial craniotomy. Patients were treated with morphine based patient controlled analgesia (PCA) for 24h following surgery and randomized to receive supplemental IV dexketoprofen 50mg, paracetamol 1g, metamizol 1g or placebo. The primary endpoint was pain intensity, secondary endpoint was the effects on morphine consumption and related side effects.

When the whole study period was analyzed with repeated measures of ANOVA, the pain intensity, cumulative morphine consumption and related side effects were not different among the groups (p>0.05).

This study showed that the use of morphine based PCA prevented moderate to severe postoperative pain without causing any life threatening side effects in patients undergoing supratentorial craniotomy with a vigilant follow up during postoperative 24h. Although we could not demonstrate statistically significant effect of supplemental analgesics on morphine consumption, it was lower in dexketoprofen and metamizol groups than control group.