ABSTRACT
Pain on injection is major disadvantage of standard propofol formulated with long chain triglycerides [LCT] during induction of anesthesia and sedation in critically ill patients. It is found that concentration of free propofol in aqueous phase of emulsion is responsible for pain on injection and that reducing amount of free propofol would also reduced frequency and intensity of pain on injection. The study was design to investigate whether pain on injection can be reduced by new formulation of propofol which consist of medium chain and long chain triglycerides [MCT/LCT] which is now available in market, and claimed reduced concentration of free propofol in aqueous phase. We devised a prospective, analytical; double blind randomized study to compare the pain on injection of two formulation of propofol for induction of general anesthesia. The present study included 200, non premeditated ASA I, II - adult patients scheduled for elective surgery under general anesthesia at Abbasi shaheed hospital. Patients were allocated randomly in two groups to receive either propofol - MCT/LCT [group I] or propofol - LCT [group II]. The study solution injected at speed of 1ml/sec in a dose of 2.5 mg /kg for induction of general anesthesia and patients graded any associated pain on injection using four point scale: 0= no pain, 1= mild pain, 2= moderate pain, 3= severe pain. There was a significantly less incidence and intensity of injection pain in group-I compared with group-II. The author concluded that propofol MCT/LCT significantly reduced the incidence and severity of pain on injection