Effect of Bupivacaine Application on Postthyroidectomy Pain

Bupivacaine Application Reduces Postthyroidectomy Pain: Cerrahpaşa Experience

Investigators aimed to evaluate the impact of bupivacaine administration into the surgical field after total thyroidectomy on post-operative pain and analgesic requirement with a double-blind, prospective, clinical, randomized study.

Pain assessment was performed with the visual analog score (VAS). Participants were pre-operatively, divided into two groups randomly to receive either bupivacaine or not. One group received a 10 ml of bupivacaine solution while the other group was treated with the same volume of 0.9% sodium chloride (NaCl) through the drain after completion of total thyroidectomy procedure. All participants were anesthetized and operated with the same anesthesia and surgical team.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Subjects need to be operated for thyroid diseases

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of previous thyroid disease,
• History of previous neck operations,
• Hypersensitivity to the drugs that were used in the study protocol,
• Spinal bone disease,
• Depression,
• Kidney failure,
• Heart failure,
• Liver failure,
• Pulmonary failure,
• Mental retardation,
• Subjects not able to ascertain pain scoring with the visual analog score (VAS),
• Patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) scores III or higher,
• Expected airway difficulty according to Mallampati scores,
• Sedative, steroid, and chronic analgesic drug users,
• Alcoholics