A comparative study of intravenous lornoxicam and paracetamol for post-operative analgesia in patients undergoing elective laparotomy under general anesthesia

Objectives: The objective of this study is to assess the analgesic effect of paracetamol and lornoxicam in post-operative pain using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score, time to first rescue analgesic, the total amount of rescue analgesic required in the first 24 h after surgery, and patient's satisfaction score after 8 h and adverse effects. Materials and Methods: Randomly, 69 patients were allotted to Group P (35) and Group L (34). Patients in Group P received a single dose of injection paracetamol 1 g 100 ml and Group L injection lornoxicam 8 mg in 100 ml normal saline. Both drugs were administered as intravenous infusion over half an hour before skin closure. The pain was assessed using VAS score, rescue analgesic tramadol 100 mg intravenously was administered if VAS score was more than three. Time required for first rescue analgesic and total amount required in the first 24 h after surgery were assessed. Patient's satisfaction was assessed at the end of 8 h, and adverse effects were monitored. Results: Among 69 patients, 45 were males and 24 females, with a mean age of 41.60 +/- 12.71 and 37.41 +/- 12.18 in paracetamol and lornoxicam groups, respectively. Mean VAS scores in patients who received paracetamol were more than lornoxicam, but it was significant at the 12th h (P = 0.04). Lornoxicam group required a significantly lesser amount of rescue analgesic (P = 0.018). At the end of 8 h, 37.1% of patients graded their satisfaction score as good in paracetamol group and 44.1% in lornoxicam group. The common adverse effect in both the groups was nausea. Conclusion: One gram intravenous paracetamol administrated during the intraoperative period is an effective analgesic for post-operative pain.