Arslan Hamid, Misbah Iqbal, Muhammad Irfan Fazal, Hassan M, Farhan Ali Abrar Ashraf Ali.
Comparative study of Postoperative Pain in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy with and without Preoperative Intravenous Dexamethasone.
J Pak Society Int Med Jan ;3(2):140-4.

Objective: The objective of this study was to associate mean postoperative pain score in cases undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy with and without preoperative intravenous dexamethasone. METHODS: This randomized controlled trial study was done at department of South Surgery, Mayo Hospital Lahore. In this study all 80 cases were taken after receiving permission from hospital ethical committee and taking well-versed consent. Using lottery method, cases were arbitrarily distributed into 2 groups, group-A and group-B. Same antibiotic for prophylaxis was given to all patients half to one hour before surgery. Group-A was given 2ml Normal Saline IV and cases selected in group-B were given dexamethasone of 8mg IV at time of induction of anesthesia. Postoperative Pain Score was noted at 6th hour of postoperative period with the help of Visual analogue Scale (VAS) as per operational definition. RESULTS: The mean age of cases in normal saline and dexamethasone group was 42.32 +- 15.44 years and 41.35 +- 14.24 years respectively. The minimum and maximum and maximum age in normal saline group was 18 and 65 while in dexamethasone group was 18 and 63 years. In normal saline group there were 9(22.5%) male and 31(77.5%) female cases while in dexamethasone group there were 8(20%) male and 32(80%) female cases. The mean postoperative pain score at 6th hour was 4.50 +- 1.66 in normal saline group and in dexamethasone group was 2.68 +- 0.69 with statistically lower mean pain in dexamethasone group, p-value < 0.05. CONCLUSION: Through the findings of this study it is concluded that the mean pain score after surgery at 6th hour was statistically lesser in dexamethasone group. So, in future by giving injection dexamethasone we can reduce the post operative analgesia and hospital stay by early discharging the cases.

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