ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Mastectomy with lymphadenectomy is a surgery associated with moderate to severe pain in the immediate postoperatory. Several safe adjuvant drugs that provide good analgesia with few adverse effects have been researched. Pregabalin and magnesium sulfate are drugs that promote analgesia with few adverse effects. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the analgesic effect of pregabalin and magnesium sulfate in the postoperatory of mastectomy with axillary lymphadenectomy.
METHODS:
Double-blinded, randomized study involving 80 patients submitted to mastectomy with axillary lymphadenectomy under general anesthesia. The patients were distributed into 4 groups: Control (CG, did not receive the proposed adjuvant drug); Magnesium+Placebo (MG, received magnesium sulfate during anesthesia); Pregabalin+Magnesium (P+MG, received magnesium added to pregabalin 150 mg before and 12 h after surgery); and Pregabalin+Placebo (PG, received pregabalin). All patients completed the Self-Report Questionnaire 20 (SRQ-20) to screen for possible mental disorders and had their physical status monitored at 1 h, 12 h, and 24 h after surgery, through anamnesis, pain questionnaire, opioid consumption, and presence of complications and/or adverse events such as nausea, vomiting, and sleepiness. Randomization was performed using sealed opaque envelopes without the knowledge of the anesthesiologist (researcher) and the patient.
RESULTS:
For each group, twenty patients were randomized, which were analyzed at the end of the study. The number of patients presenting absent/mild pain in P+MG was significantly higher than in CG, MG and PG after one hour. After 12 hours, P+MG and PG had more patients with absent/mild pain than CG and MG. At 24 hours postoperatively, all patients in all evaluated groups had no moderate/severe pain. There was no diference in the frequency of patients presenting nausea or vomiting, nor in the scores of the sleep evaluation after surgery in the four groups.
CONCLUSION:
The combination of magnesium sulfate and pregabalin provided satisfactory analgesia in the first hour after mastectomy with axillary lymphadenectomy. Nevertheless, magnesium sulfate isolated presented no analgesic beneft for the patients, and pregabalin isolated was only slightly effective at the first hour after surgery.
Keywords:
Postoperative pain; Pregabalin; Magnesium sulfate