• Gerhard Brodner, Wiebke Gogarten, Hugo Van Aken, Klaus Hahnenkamp, Carola Wempe, Hendrik Freise, Irmgard Cosanne, Markus Huppertz-Thyssen, and Björn Ellger.
• Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Therapy, Fachklinik Hornheide, Muenster, Germany.
• Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2011 Feb 1;28(2):125-32.

Background And ObjectiveParacetamol has a well established pharmacological profile, but its postoperative efficacy is in question. This double-blind, placebo-controlled study was designed to compare the efficacy of intravenous paracetamol with other intravenous non-opioids as part of a multimodal concept for perioperative pain therapy.MethodsPatients undergoing minor-to-intermediate surgery under general anaesthesia were randomly assigned to receive infusions of paracetamol (1 g every 6 h), dipyrone (1 g every 6 h), parecoxib (40 mg every 12 h) separated by infusions of physiological saline 0.9%, or placebo (0.9% saline every 6 h), respectively, for at least 48 h as part of a multimodal pain concept. Patient-controlled piritramide was administered as rescue medication. Dependent variables were recorded 1, 6, 18, 30 and 42 h after extubation and 1 week after surgery. Surgical and associated pain was scored as the primary outcome on a visual analogue scale. Additionally, time to first dose and total piritramide dosage, satisfaction, respiratory depression, nausea, vomiting, sedation, itching and sweating were recorded.ResultsA total of 196 patients were recruited. The efficacy of paracetamol was similar to that of the other non-opioid analgesics. Surgical pain was reduced with all non-opioids compared to placebo; there was no effect on associated pain. Piritramide dosage and incidence of side effects were not reduced.ConclusionIntravenous paracetamol has equivalent efficacy to non-opioids dipyrone and parecoxib that improves postoperative pain therapy when used as part of a multimodal concept after minor-to-intermediate surgery.

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