Postoperative analgesics for superficial surgery. Comparison of four analgesics

The efficacy of mild analgesics after 160 various superficial operations was studied by comparing intravenous lysine-acetylsalicylate (LAS) 1.8 g, Litalgin 4 ml (metamizole = dipyrone 2.0 g+ pitophenone 8.0 mg) or paracetamol 0.5 g to oxycodone 4 mg. At 15 min postdrug, oxycodone 4 mg had the best peak effect but this significant (P less than 0.05) difference to mild analgesics disappeared at 30 min, and thereafter all test analgesics showed an equally low effect. Two-thirds of the patients anaesthetized without peroperative analgesics needed pain relief when recovering from superficial surgery. The need for pain relief was lowest after varicose vein operations 40% of the patients as compared to about 70% after other types of superficial surgery. In 42% of the patients requiring pain relief, the test analgesics alone gave sufficient pain relief. The rest needed an additional 5 mg of oxycodone, on average, to be comfortable. The combined use of mild analgesics and oxycodone for adequate pain relief did not seem to reduce the postdrug sedation as compared to oxycodone alone. The results indicate that in traditional clinical dosages LAS, dipyrone or paracetamol can substitute about 5 mg oxycodone but offer sufficient analgesia only in about 40% of the patients recovering from superficial surgery.