• C-H Koo, S Yoon, B-R Kim, Y J Cho, T K Kim, Y Jeon, and J-H Seo.
• Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, CHA Bundang Medical Center, CHA University, 59 Yatap-ro, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 13496, Korea.
• Br J Anaesth. 2017 Dec 1; 119 (6): 1161-1168.

BackgroundIntraoperative use of a high-dose remifentanil may induce postoperative hyperalgesia. Low-dose naloxone can selectively reverse some adverse effects of opioids without compromising analgesia. We thus hypothesized that the intraoperative use of a high-dose remifentanil combined with a low-dose naloxone infusion reduces postoperative hyperalgesia compared with the use of remifentanil alone.MethodsPatients undergoing elective thyroid surgery were randomly assigned into one of three groups, depending on the intraoperative effect-site concentration of remifentanil, with or without a continuous infusion of naloxone: 4 ng ml-1 remifentanil with 0.05 μg kg-1 h-1 naloxone in the high-remifentanil with naloxone group, and 4 or 1 ng ml-1 remifentanil with a placebo in the high- or low-remifentanil groups, respectively. We measured the pain thresholds (primary outcome) to mechanical stimuli using von Frey filaments and incidence of hyperalgesia on the peri-incisional area 24 h after surgery. We also measured pain intensity, analgesic consumptions and adverse events up to 48 h after surgery.ResultsThe pain threshold presented as von Frey numbers [median (interquartile range)] was significantly lower in the high-remifentanil group (n=31) than in the high-remifentanil with naloxone (n=30) and the low-remifentanil (n=30) groups [3.63 (3.22-3.84) vs 3.84 (3.76-4.00) vs 3.80 (3.69-4.08), P=0.011]. The incidence of hyperalgesia was also higher in the high-remifentanil group than in the other groups [21/31 vs 10/30 vs 9/30, P=0.005]. Postoperative pain intensity, analgesic consumptions and adverse events were similar between groups.ConclusionsThe intraoperative use of low-dose naloxone combined with high-dose remifentanil reduced postoperative hyperalgesia but not pain.Clinical Trial RegistrationNCT02856087.© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

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