• D Cornesse, M Senard, G A Hans, D Ledoux, M Kirsch, G Hick, C Hallet, and J Joris.
• Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Cliniques Saint-Joseph de Liège, Centre Hospitalier Chrétien de Liège, Liège, Belgium.
• Acta Chir Belg. 2010 Sep 1; 110 (5): 529-32.

BackgroundParacetamol (acetaminophen) is widely used for postoperative analgesia at a recommended dose of 1 g every six hours in adult patients. Increasing the loading dose to 2 g was suggested to improve immediate postoperative analgesia without increased toxicity in healthy adult patients. We tested the hypothesis that a loading dose of 2 g of intravenous paracetamol results in better postoperative analgesia after surgery as compared with a dose of 1 g.MethodsSixty adult patients scheduled for minor hand surgery under intravenous regional anaesthesia were randomized into two groups. The first group received 1 g of intravenous paracetamol before surgery while the second group received 2 g. Verbal numeric pain score, analgesic consumption, first night sleep quality, and patient's satisfaction were recorded during the first 24 hours.ResultsVerbal numeric pain scores during the first 24 hours after surgery were significantly lower in the 2 g paracetamol group as compared to the 1 g paracetamol group. No differences were found between the two groups with regard to rescue analgesic consumption, sleep quality and patient's satisfaction.ConclusionsAn intraoperative loading dose of 2 g paracetamol improves postoperative analgesia after minor hand surgery as compared to 1 g paracetamol.

27 keywords...

hide…