Background: Postoperative pain can be prevented. Gabapentin may be effective in this role. Our primary objective was to test the hypothesis that a prophylactic administration of gabapentin in obese patients before surgery has an opioid-sparing effect and reduces postoperative oxycodone consumption more efficiently than placebo.
Methods: The study enrolled 113 patients undergoing laparoscopic sleeve-gastrectomy under general anesthesia. The patients were randomly allocated to the control or gabapentin group and received a single oral dose of gabapentin 1200 mg or a matching placebo 1 h before surgery.
Results: The mean time from the end of anesthesia to the commencement of analgesic therapy was 74.3±37.8 minutes in the placebo group and 110.4±65.4 minutes with gabapentin (mean difference: -36, 95% CI: 12 to 40, P=0.0004). The mean 12-hour oxycodone consumption was 31.5±10 mg with placebo and 26.3±10 mg with gabapentin (mean difference: -5.2 mg, 95% CI: -9.08 to -1.35, P=0.0085). The mean NRS pain intensity at 12 hours was 2±0.9 in the placebo group and 1.5±0.9 with gabapentin (mean difference: -0.5, 95% CI: 0.15 to 0.81, P=0.003).
Conclusions: The demand for oxycodone was delayed in the gabapentin group; also, the total 12-hour dose requirement of oxycodone was lower in the gabapentin group.