COMPARISON OF TWO DIFFERENT DOSES OF ORAL GABAPENTIN FOR POST OPERATIVE ANALGESIA IN LOWER LIMB SURGERY UNDER SPINAL ANAESTHESIA

Background: Pre-emptive analgesia is a technique of pain control where treatment is initiated before intervention and operational during the surgical procedure in order to reduce the physiological consequences of nociceptive transmission provoked by the procedure. Gabapentin has demonstrated analgesic effects in clinical trials as a preemptive analgesic in acute postoperative pain management with very few side effects. Owing to the protective effect of gabapentin on the nociceptive pathways, preemptive analgesia has the potential to be more effective and hence reduce postoperative pain and development of chronic pain.

Objective: We therefore designed this study to compare two different doses of Oral Gabapentin (300mg and 600mg) given as pre-emptive analgesic for post-operative pain relief in lower limb surgeries under spinal anaesthesia.

Method: After the approval from ethical committee this prospective randomized double blinded clinical study was conducted over a period of two years in department of anaesthesia in M.G.M.s medical college, Aurangabad. Randomly allocated two groups were given Oral Gabapentin 300mg and 600mg respectively, one hour prior to giving spinal anaesthesia for post operative analgesia in lower limb surgeries.

Conclusion: There is no statistically significant difference between group G300 (gabapentin 300mg) and group G600 (gabapentin 600mg) regarding age, gender, duration of analgesia (i.e. demand for first rescue analgesic), total dose of analgesics in first twenty four hours after surgery, duration of sensory block (i.e. L1 regression), highest ramsay sedation score and VAS scores. No significant difference was seen in cases hemodynamic stability and incidence of side effects.