Abstract

Introduction: Poor control of postoperative acute pain will result in various acute and chronic complications. Nowadays, a multimodal approach is used to control post-operative pain. Pregabalin and gabapentin have been shown to have analgesic effects on postoperative pain as a Gaba-Amino-Buteric Acid (GABA) analogue with minimal side effects.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the analgesic effects of pregabalin with that of gabapentin in the prevention of postoperative pain in patients undergoing tibia fixation surgery.

Materials and Methods: Sixty patients, candidate for tibia fixation surgery under spinal anesthesia, were randomly assigned into two groups. For the intervention group(P), 150 mg oral pregabalin one hour before surgery and for the intervention group(G)300 mg  oral gabapentin were prescribed two hours before surgery .Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain assessment, opioid consumption, nausea, vomiting and vertigo were evaluated in a 12 hour period after surgery. If pain score (VAS) was more than three, intravenous morphin (0.1 mg/kg) was administered .Chi-Square and repeated measurement and t- tests were used for statistical analysis.

Results: The results of the study showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups, regarding pain, nausea, vomiting and vertigo in measurement point times (p>0.05). However, it was found that VAS score in the two groups decreased during 12 hours postoperatively but there was no statistically significant difference between the groups (p=0.22, F=1.5).

Conclusion: Administration of a single dose of pregabalin orally (150 mg) or gabapentin (300 mg) before orthopedic surgery reduced post operative pain, opioid consumption and consequently the rate of nausea and vomiting.