Postoperative Pain Management after Impacted Third Molar Surgery with Preoperative Oral Lamotrigine, a Randomized,...

Extraction of the impacted third molar is often associated with severe postoperative pains, management of which are a big challenge. Lamotrigine is a new antiepileptic drug with pre-emptive analgesic properties, which is hypothesized to alleviate postoperative pain.

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of pre-operative administration of single oral 200 mg lamotrigine in reducing the postoperative pain of impacted third molar surgery.

In this randomized controlled trial, 100 adult patients were divided into two groups (n= 50) to receive either 200 mg oral lamotrigine or placebo 1 hour before the removal of impacted third molar. The patients were monitored for 4 hours in the recovery room and pain intensity was measured through visual analogue scale (VAS) for the next 12 hours at 30-minute intervals. The time and number of rescue analgesics used in 12 hours was also recorded.

Two groups were not statistically significantly different regarding the severity of postoperative pain. (p= 0.512).

Accordingly, pre-emptive administration of lamotrigine was not effective in diminishing the postoperative acute pain of impacted third molar extraction.