Nalbuphine compared to pethidine for postoperative pain relief after orthopaedic surgery

ABSTRACT

Nalbuphine hydrochloride, a synthetic agonist-antagtonist analgesic, in a dose of 20 mg was compared with pethidine 100 mg in 60 patients after elective surgery in a random double-blind study. Both drugs were given intramuscularly on the first day after surgery. The pain intensity and visual analogue scales would seem to indicate that nalbuphine has a longer duration of action than pethidine [P < 0.05]. The respiration rates in the pethidine group were significantly more depressed 30 minutes after the injection than in the nalbuphine group [P < 0.05]. Nalbuphine caused less depression of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure at both 30 and 60 minutes [P < 0.001]. The results of the study show that nalbuphine, in the dose used here, may prove to be a useful substitute for pethidine