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Comparison of peritonsillar infiltration of tramadol and lidocaine for the relief of post-tonsillectomy pain

M H Heiba^a1, A Atef^a1 c1, M Mosleh^a1, R Mohamed^a1 and M El-Hamamsy^a2

^a1 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt

^a2 Department of Anesthesia, Faculty of Medicine, El-Fayoum University, Egypt

Abstract

Several studies have reported the use of peritonsillar infiltrations of local anaesthetics and/or locally active analgesic drugs for the relief of post-tonsillectomy pain, with variable results in terms of quality and duration of analgesia. We aimed to compare the effects of peritonsillar infiltration of lidocaine versus tramadol versus placebo on post-tonsillectomy pain.

Sixty patients over the age of 10 years undergoing bilateral elective tonsillectomy under general anaesthesia were randomised into three groups. The first group received peritonsillar infiltration of tramadol, the second 2 per cent lidocaine and the third normal saline. In all groups, peritonsillar infiltration was carried out after tonsillectomy but prior to tracheal extubation. Post-operative comparisons were made to assess the quality of pain control and the patients' analgesic requirements.

Peritonsillar infiltration of tramadol provided an analgesic effect comparable to that of lidocaine in the first 6 hours post-operation, as reflected by visual analogue scale pain scores and opioid requirements, which were lower compared with the placebo group.

Peritonsillar infiltration of tramadol provided pain control in the first 6 hours post-tonsillectomy which was comparable to that of lidocaine.

(Accepted January 04 2012)

(Online publication September 19 2012)

Key words

• Tonsillectomy;
• Postoperative Pain;
• Lidocaine;
• Tramadol

Correspondence:

^c1 Address for correspondence: Dr A Atef, 7 Mahmoud Afifi St, Almaza, Cairo, Egypt 11341 E-mail: amratef@dr.com

Footnotes

  Dr A Atef takes responsibility for the integrity of the content of the paper

Competing interests: None declared