Multimodal Analgesic Treatment Versus Traditional Morphine Analgesia After Cardiac Surgery

Multimodal Opiate-sparing Analgesia Versus Traditional Opiate Based Analgesia After Cardiac Surgery, a Randomized Controlled Trial

To test if multimodal analgesia with different analgesic medication offer better pain relief, lesser side effects and is safe compared to conventionel opiod analgesia after cardiac surgery.

Inclusion Criteria:

• age>18
• any cardiac procedure with sternotomy
• able to give informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• cardiac surgery without sternotomy
• peripheral neuropathy
• neurological disease
• psychiatric illness
• history of GI bleeding
• chronic pain (i.e. back pain, cancer, arthritis)
• serum creatinine >150 μmol/l
• hepatic disease with elevated liver enzymes (SGPT and SGOT elevated to 1.5 times maximum normal value)
• allergic to study medication
• alcohol abuse
• abuse of narcotics or medication
• pregnancy
• participation in other clinical trials
• insufficient language skills
• In addition intensive care unit (ICU) stay for more than 24 hours was used as a pre-defined post randomization exclusion criteria, because prolonged ICU stay and ventilator treatment would interfere with study analgesic protocol.