Regional anaesthesia for postoperative pain management after liver resection

• Main Authors: Darius Trepenaitis, Tadas Česnaitis, Andrius Macas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vilnius University Press 2012-10-01
• Series: Acta Medica Lituanica
• Subjects: postoperative pain management; infiltration analgesia; local anesthetic; levobupivacaine
• Online Access: https://www.journals.vu.lt/AML/article/view/21534
• ISSN: 1392-0138; 2029-4174

Background. Pain is the most common complication in the postoperative period. If adequate treatment is not taken, it can transform to chronic pain. Postoperative pain brings a lot of social, psychological and financial problems for patients and their families. Materials and methods. This prospective study included 30 patients after laparatomic liver resection operation. Patients were randomly assign­ ed to Infiltrated or Control groups. An infiltration of 40 ml levobupivacaine 0.25% solution to the operation cut edges was performed to the Infiltrated group. The pain was evaluated using the numerical rating scale after 2, 5, 12, 24, 48 hours and 1 month after the operation. Our aim was to determine the effect of local anesthesia in the operation wound. The total usage of morphine and any side effects were registered. Results. A statistically significant reduction in pain was observed in the Infiltrated group in all evaluation periods. Opioids usage was higher in the Control group almost by 4 times and adverse effects were 9 to 1 compared to the Infiltrated group. Conclusions. Surgical wound infiltration with local anesthetic for postoperative pain management after liver resection operations has a positive effect on postoperative pain reduction and leads to lesser usage of opioid analgetics. As a result, there is a less chance of opioids induced adverse effects.