ABSTRACT
Although laparoscopic surgery is known to cause less postoperative pain when compared to laparotomy, some patients still suffer from excessive pain, especially during the first stages of recovery. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of intraperitoneal instillation of lidocaine during gynecological laparoscopic procedures on postoperative pain. The study was a prospective, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. This study included 75 patients who underwent gynecological laparoscopic procedures at Women Hospital - Kusr Al-Aini. Patients were randomly assigned either to a study group that received 120mg of lidocaine intraperitonealy at the end of surgery [n=60] or to a control group that received normal saline [NS] in the same manner [n=15]. The fluid was injected with a sterile syringe through one of the laparoscopy ports at the end of surgery. All patients received the same anesthetic technique. Postoperative pain was evaluated according to postoperative analgesic requirements and by Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale [WBFS] at 15min, 1h, 2h, 4h, 12h and 24h postoperatively. The [WBFS] score was found to be lower for the study group 1h, 2h and 4h after surgery [p=0.023]. There was no difference in the [WBFS] scores at 15min [p=0.9], 12h [p=0.13] and 24h [p=0.11] after surgery. There was no difference in terms of fentanyl administration during surgery or analgesic consumption following surgery between the study and control groups. The results indicated that intraperitoneal installation of lidocaine was effective at reducing postoperative pain and the need for postoperative analgesics following gynecologic laparoscopic procedures