Tizanidine and Superficial Cervical Block on Pain After Thyroidectomy

Preemptive Single Dose Tizanidine and Ultrasound Guided Superficial Cervical Block on Pain After Thyroidectomy

Thyroid surgery is a quite painful procedure performed in a sensitive skin area of the human body. Unless pain is treated adequately thyroid surgery may cause severe postoperative pain and discomfort for the patients.

a2-Agonists are sympatholytic and centrally acting antihypertensive agents. In addition to their hypotensive effect, a2-agonists are also used in anesthetic practice for their sedative and analgesic effects. Tizanidine is a centrally acting a2-agonist with muscle relaxant, sedative and anxiolytic properties. This drug is widely used for the treatment of spasticity and has recently been used to treat musculoskeletal pain conditions.

Ultrasound (US) guidance during regional anesthesia practices has been a revolutionary advancement to improve success and safety of regional anesthesia. Analgesic effect of US guidance superficial cervical plexus block (SCPB) in patients undergoing thyroid surgery has not been reported yet.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the analgesic effect of preemptive oral single dose tizanidine and US guidance SCPB in patients undergoing elective thyroid surgery. The investigators hypothesis that: Tizanidine and US guided SCPB can reduce the pain scores, analgesic consumption, analgesic related side effects.

Inclusion Criteria:

• American Society of Anesthesiologist's physiologic state I-III patients undergoing thyroidectomy

Exclusion Criteria:

• chronic pain
• bleeding disorders
• renal or hepatic insufficiency
• patients on chronic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications
• recurrent goiter
• emergency cases