Postoperative Pain and Gabapentin

Combined spinal-epidural anesthesia (CSEA) is a technique, which is frequently preferred in lower extremity surgery. It has been reported that preoperative administration of gabapentin, approved for neuropathic and chronic pains, also reduces postoperative pain. In this study, the effect of preoperative administration of gabapentin on postoperative pain in patients who had CSEA during lower extremity surgery is investigated. The demographic characteristics, hemodynamic parameters, duration of surgery, and sedation scores of the groups were similar. It was found that the postoperative pain scores (VAS) were lower in Group Gabapentin at the 30th and 60th minutes and at 18th and 24th hours (p<0.05). In the postoperative period, 10 patients in Group Plasebo experienced pruritus at the 18th hour, as did eight patients at the 24th hour, whereas none of the patients in Group Gabapentin reported pruritus at either the 18th or 24th hours (p<0.001, p<0.005). The differences between the nausea scores and other side effects of the two groups were not statistically significant.