The Clinical journal of pain
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A Single Preoperative Administration of Dexamethasone, Low-dose Pregabalin, or a Combination of the Two, in Spinal Surgery does not Provide a Better Analgesia than a Multimodal Analgesic Protocol Alone.
A single perioperative dose of glucocorticoid or gabapentinoid, or a combination of the 2, may improve postoperative analgesia, but data are still insufficient to be conclusive. In this single-center, randomized, double-blind, and double-dummy trial, we aimed to test whether the analgesic effect of adding preoperative pregabalin, at a dose unlikely to induce side effects, to preoperative dexamethasone improves early mobilization after spinal surgery. ⋯ In this surgical model with the given anesthetic and analgesic environment, there was no advantage gained by adding low-dose pregabalin or dexamethasone. The multimodal analgesic protocol applied to all patients may have reduced the size of the effect.