Preemptive Effects of Lidocain on Postoperative Pain in Patients Undergoing Disc Operation: A Randomized, Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Background: Postoperative pain is a major poorly managed problem in millions of operations performed all over the world each year. Since infiltration of the operative field with lidocain as a local anesthetic is very cheap, it is easily available, and there are few side effects, this study aimed to evaluate its efficacy on post-op-pain of patients undergoing open intervertebral disc surgery. Methods: In this double blind clinical trial on 188 patients undergoing elective open intervertebral disc operation, the surgical incision site was infiltrated with 2 ml of 1/500,000 epinephrine for each centimeter in the control group and the same solution with 20 mg lidocain for each centimeter of the incision in the case group. Post-oppain was measured with visual analog scale (VAS) in the 6th, 12th, 24th, and 48th hours. Results: The mean age was 41.8±12.4 for the study group, and 43.5±15.6 for the control one. Statistical analysis revealed no significant difference in pain severity in females, but for males it was significant at the 6th and 24th hours. Interestingly, it was more severe in those receiving lidocain. The amount of narcotics used postoperatively revealed no significant difference in the groups. Conclusion: Lidocain used locally before skin incision has no effect on reducing post-op-pain, post-op-narcotics demand, and duration of hospital stay.