Evaluation of the Efficacy of Preemptive Analgesia with Gabapentin in Reducing Postoperative Pain and Opioid Consumption in Patients Undergoing Orthopedic Surgery
Keywords:
Preemptive analgesia, gabapentin, postoperative pain, opioid consumption, orthopedic surgery, multimodal analgesia, opioid-sparing, pain management, analgesic efficacy, anesthesiology.Abstract
Preemptive analgesia aims to reduce postoperative pain by administering analgesic agents before surgery to inhibit central sensitization. This study investigates the effectiveness of preemptive gabapentin in reducing postoperative pain and opioid consumption in patients undergoing elective orthopedic surgery. We randomized 100 patients to receive either oral gabapentin or a placebo 2 hours before surgery. Postoperative pain intensity was measured using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) at regular intervals, and opioid consumption was recorded for the first 24 hours post-surgery. The results demonstrated that the gabapentin group had significantly lower pain scores and required fewer opioids compared to the placebo group. Moreover, there were fewer incidences of opioid-related side effects, such as nausea and sedation, in the gabapentin group. These findings suggest that preemptive gabapentin is an effective adjunct to multimodal analgesia, reducing the need for opioids and enhancing patient recovery after orthopedic surgery.
