Preoperative Oral Pregabalin Reduces Acute Pain after Thoracotomy

Nowadays pain control is one of the most important challenges for physicians, surgeons and anesthesiologists. New drugs and procedures to control pain have always been a major topic for researches.

In this study, we evaluated the effects of preoperative pregabalin administration on relieving postoperative pain after thoracotomy surgery.

This study is a randomised, double-blind clinical trial, performed on 60 patients who underwent thoracotomy at Afzalipour hospital in Kerman, Iran. They were divided into case and control groups. Two hours before surgery an oral capsule of 300 mg pregabalin or placebo was given to patients. All patients similarly underwent general anaesthesia. Pain, nausea and vomiting were evaluated based on the visual analogue scale (VAS) and frequency. This study was verified and obtained the ethics committee code of K/92/489 from Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

The average age of the pregabalin group was 39.7 ± 5.8 years and the control group 41.3 ± 6.1 years. The average pain score after regaining consciousness was 6.1 ± 0.2 in the case group and 7.9 ± 0.1 in the control group, and there was a significant difference between the 2 groups (p-value = 0.002). In the control group, 2 patients and the intervention group 3 patients, experienced nausea and vomiting. There was a significant difference between the overall average pethidine consumption and the average visual analogue scale in both groups.

Pregabalin administration before thoracotomy is effective to reduce postoperative pain in patients. More research is needed to determine the optimal dose of pregabalin for preoperative administration.