The Efficacy of Pre-Incisional Bupivacaine Infiltration for Post-Operative Pain Relief in Patients Undergoing Appendectomy

The Efficacy of Pre-Incisional Bupivacaine Infiltration for Post-Operative Pain Relief in Patients Undergoing Appendectomy
Summary:
In surgical patients, post-operative pain is the most annoying experience. Previous clinical trials investigated different methods to manage pain postoperatively, however,  the effect of pre-incisional administration of bupivacaine infiltration still under debate, hence, we aimed to assess the efficacy of pre-operative bupivacaine infiltration as a part of pre-emptive analgesia in attenuating post-operative pain in patient undergoing open appendectomy. After ethical approval of the study by the Scientific council of Anesthesia and intensive care we conducted this study at Al Sadr medical compound in Najaf, Iraq. The study included 64 patients planned for open appendectomy, and they were randomly assigned into two equal groups. First group (A) infiltrated with 20 cc of 0.5 % plain bupivacaine alongside the line of incision preoperatively after induction of general anesthesia, patients in group B received normal saline instead of bupivacaine as control group. The post-operative pain score at recovery and 2 hours post-operatively  were recorded using visual analogue scale (VAS) and compared between groups. Findings revealed a significant lower pain score for the immediate and 2 hours post-operatively in group A than group B, (p < 0.05). In conclusion, Pre-operative local  infiltration of bupivacaine is an effective and easy way for attenuating post-operative pain in patients undergoing open appendectomy.