A Comparative Study of Acetaminophen and Combination of Acetaminophen with Gabapentin for Post-Operative Analgesia for Open Cholecystectomy

Background The relief of pain has always been a part of the anaesthesiologists role in the most immediate postoperative period and the development of acute postoperative pain services has extended this interest beyond the post-anaesthesia care unit. To evaluate the effects of premedication with acetaminophen and combination of acetaminophen with gabapentin for post-operative pain relief, postoperative analgesic requirement and side effects in patients undergoing open cholecystectomy under general anesthesia. Methods and materials This prospective randomized double blinded control study was conducted amongst sixty patients of ASA physical status I and II, age between 25-50 years, two groups 30 in each group to receive either Group A patients received tablet acetaminophen 15 mg/Kg, Group AG patients received tablet acetaminophen15 mg/kg and Capsule gabapentin 20 mg/kg two hours prior to the surgery. Patients were observed 12 hours postoperatively for pain via visual analogue scale (VAS), analgesic requirement and side effects. Results It was observed that patients in gabapentin group had statistically significant lower pain score during the entire observation period in comparison to acetaminophen group. The total postoperative analgesic duration i. e. time from spinal analgesia to first dose of analgesic was 2.36 + 0.71 hours in Group A whereas 10.69 + 1.55 hours in Group AG, which was highly significant (P less than 0.0001). The mean number of rescue analgesic dose requirement in the gabapentin group (1 +0) was substantially lower than that of the acetaminophen group (2.72 +0.46). The mean sedation scores were always higher in gabapentin group (4.36+ 0.49) as compared to acetaminophen group. Conclusions Gabapentin significantly reduces post-operative pain and post-operative tramadol consumption with very minimal adverse effects.