Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2001
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialEffects of gabapentin in acute inflammatory pain in humans.
The aim of the study was to examine the analgesic effects of the anticonvulsant, gabapentin, in a validated model of acute inflammatory pain. ⋯ The study indicates that gabapentin has no analgesic effect in normal skin, but may reduce primary mechanical allodynia in acute inflammation following a thermal injury. These observations suggest a clinical potential of gabapentin in the treatment of postoperative pain.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2001
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialBuprenorphine added to the local anesthetic for brachial plexus block to provide postoperative analgesia in outpatients.
Over the past 10 years, several studies have suggested that the addition of certain opiates to the local anesthetic used for brachial block may provide effective, long-lasting postoperative analgesia. One of these studies indicated that the agonist-antagonist, buprenorphine, added to bupivacaine provided a longer period of postoperative analgesia than the traditional opiates, but in this study, it is impossible to determine the relative contributions of the local anesthetic and the opiate to the postoperative analgesia because of the extremely long duration of the anesthesia provided by the local anesthetic, bupivacaine. By repeating the study using a local anesthetic of a shorter duration, the present study delineates more clearly the contribution of the buprenorphine to postoperative analgesia when added to a shorter-acting local anesthetic. ⋯ The addition of buprenorphine to the local anesthetic used for brachial plexus block in the present study provided a 3-fold increase in the duration of postoperative analgesia, with complete analgesia persisting 30 hours beyond the duration provided by the local anesthetic alone in 75% of the patients. This practice can be of particular benefit to patients undergoing ambulatory upper extremity surgery by providing prolonged analgesia after discharge from the hospital.