Prevention of Post-Operative Pain after Elective Brain Surgery: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

An update on the perioperative management of postcraniotomy pain

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Pain after craniotomy is often severe and undertreated. Providing adequate analgesia while avoiding medication adverse effects and physiological complications of pain remains a perioperative challenge.

RECENT FINDINGS

Multimodal pain management includes regional anesthesia and analgesic adjuncts. Strategies aim to reduce or eliminate opioids and the associated side effects. Many individual pharmacologic interventions have been studied with beneficial effects on acute pain following craniotomy. Evidence has been accumulating in support of scalp blockade, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), dexmedetomidine, paracetamol, and gabapentinoids. The strongest evidence supports scalp block in reducing postcraniotomy pain and opioid requirements.

SUMMARY

Improving analgesia following craniotomy continues to be a challenge that should be managed with multimodal medications and regional techniques. Additional studies are needed to identify the most effective regimen, balancing efficacy and adverse drug effects.

Preoperatively administered single dose of dexketoprofen decreases pain intensity on the first 5 days after craniotomy: A single-centre placebo-controlled, randomized trial

Background and purpose

Headache attributed to craniotomy is an underestimated and under-treated condition. Previous studies confirmed the efficacy of preemptive analgesia with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents. The aim of the present work was to test the hypothesis of whether a single preoperatively administered dose of dexketoprofen (DEX) has the potency to decrease postcraniotomy headache (PCH) as compared to placebo (PL).

Patients and methods

This is a single-centre, randomized, PL-controlled trial comparing the effect of a single oral dose of 25 mg DEX to PL on the intensity of PCH. Patients undergoing craniotomy were randomly allocated to DEX and PL groups. Patients rated their actual and worst daily pain using visual analogue scale (VAS) scores during intrahospital treatment (0-5 days) and 30 and 90 days postoperatively.

Results

Two hundred patients were included. DEX decreased the worst daily pain intensity in the first 24 h only; the 5-days cumulative score of actual pain was 9.7 ± 7.9 cm for the DEX group and 12.6 ± 10.5 cm for the PL group, respectively (p = 0.03). This difference disappeared in the late, 30-, and 90-day follow-up period. No differences in VAS scores could be detected in supra- and infratentorial cases among the DEX and PL groups.

Conclusions

A single preoperative dose of 25 mg of DEX slightly decreases the intensity of PCH in the first 5 days after craniotomy but it does not have an effect on chronic headaches and postoperative analgesic requirements.