Effect of pre-incisional infiltration of 0.5% ropivacaine versus placebo in post-operative pain relief among patients undergoing tonsillectomy under general anaesthesia: a comparative study
<p><strong>Background:</strong> Pain is the most common complaint in the immediate post-tonsillectomy period. Inadequate post-tonsillectomy pain management has many drawbacks. Ropivacaine is a new long acting local anaesthetic, structurally closely related to bupivacaine.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>It was a prospective double blinded randomized control trial on a total of 50 patients who were posted for tonsillectomy. Randomization of each patient was done into two groups one of which had received 4 ml of 0.5% ropivacaine hydrochloride solution and other 4 ml normal saline. Data entry and analysis was done with (SPSS IBM) version 21.0. Both univariate and bivariate analysis done. Proportions were calculated for qualitative variables and mean with standard deviation was done for quantitative variables. Required tests of significance such as Chi square test and independent test were applied. Significance of p value is taken as p<0.05. Postoperative pain, first post op oral intake, duration of post-operative hospital stay, and postoperative haemorrhage was assessed. The intensity of postoperative pain was assessed on behavioural observational pain Scale and Wong baker faces pain rating scale.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong> Pre-incisional infiltration of 0.5% Ropivacaine was an effective method to reduce post-operative pain in patients undergoing tonsillectomy under GA. Effect of Ropivacaine was statistically significant (p<0.05).</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> We recommend the use of 0.5% ropivacaine pre-incisional infiltration in patients undergoing tonsillectomy.</p>