2023, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Part A

Good perioperative pain management is beneficial for both the patient and doctor. Poor pain management can lead to delayed patient mobility, increased hospital stay and chronic pain syndrome in susceptible patients. An important concept in pain management is the idea of pre-emptive analgesia. The recommendation is to administer analgesia prior to noxious stimulus to block peripheral as well as central nociception maintaining it throughout intra and post-operative period. One drug for such use is Pregabalin, which we used in our study on 62 patients undergoing elective nasal surgeries between 2017 and 2018 to assess analgesic efficacy of 75 mg vs 150 mg of pre-emptive Pregabalin. We observed that the mean Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) score was lower in patients receiving 150 mg Pregabalin compared to those receiving 75 mg at all times, with a p value of <0.05. The former group also needed lower rescue analgesic dosage and a longer interval of first rescue analgesic dose time with comparable hemodynamic parameters in both groups.