• Marko Zdravkovic and Mirt Kamenik.
• Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Management, University Medical Centre Maribor, Ljubljanska ulica 5, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia; Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, Taborska ulica 8, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia. Electronic address: markozdravkovic@gmail.com.
• J Clin Anesth. 2020 Apr 16; 64: 109808109808.

Study ObjectiveWe aimed to determine the magnitude of peri-operative opioid sparing effect when general anesthesia is combined with spinal analgesia for laparoscopic gynecological surgery.DesignA prospective randomized controlled study; a three-group trial with two comparisons (each intervention group to control).SettingOperating room and postoperative recovery area.PatientsPatients aged between 18 and 65 years with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 1 or 2 who were scheduled for inpatient elective laparoscopic gynecological surgery with expected pneumoperitoneum duration of at least 20 min. Of 102 randomized patients, 99 completed the study.InterventionsPatients were randomized to general anesthesia alone (control group) or combined with very-low-dose (levobupivacaine 3.75 mg; sufentanil 2.5 μg) or low-dose (levobupivacaine 7.5 mg; sufentanil 2.5 μg) spinal analgesia.MeasurementsPrimary endpoints were perioperative opioid consumption and pain scores (11-point numeric rating scale) at 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 4 h and 24 h post-surgery. Secondary endpoints were patient satisfaction with anesthetic care and participation in research, sevoflurane consumption and adverse effects.Main ResultsIntra-operative sufentanil (median [95% CI]) consumption was 16.1 (10.5-22.6) μg/h in the control group versus 4.7 (3.2-9.2) μg/h in the very-low-dose and versus 2.9 (0.0-4.0) μg/h in the low-dose spinal analgesia groups (p < 0.001, for both comparisons). Median (95% CI) piritramide consumption at 24 h post-surgery was 7.5 (3-8) mg in the control group versus 5 (0-7.5) mg in the very-low dose spinal analgesia group (p = 0.182) and versus 2 (0-2.5) mg in the low-dose spinal analgesia group (p = 0.001). Postoperative pain scores were consistently <3 only in the low dose spinal analgesia group. Patient satisfaction with anesthetic care and participation in research was very high in all groups.ConclusionsLow-dose spinal analgesia in combination with general anesthesia reduces peri-operative opioid consumption in laparoscopic gynecological surgery in immediate postoperative period.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

6 keywords...

hide…