Effect of Alprazolam as a Preoperative Adjuvant Analgesic on Postoperative Pain in Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy Patients

Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of alprazolam, administered at different doses, for the control of adjuvant analgesia in laparoscopic donor nephrectomy patients preoperatively in the Akdeniz University Organ Transplantation Center, using various pain scales. Materials and Methods. Only patients with a body mass index <= 28 kg/m(2), aged between 18 and 65 years old, and with an American Society of Anesthesiologists score of 1 to 2 were included in the study. The patients were studied in 3 groups, which were given 0.5 mg alprazolam (group 1), 1 mg alprazolam (group 2), or no alprazolam (group 3) in the preoperative period. Collected data were evaluated for preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative periods. Results. There were 75 patients (31 men, 44 women). Mean age was 43.1 years. Twenty-five patients were evaluated in all 3 groups. Mean operation time was 137.8 minutes. There was no statistical difference among the groups in the duration of administered alprazolam before the operation, on the Ramsey sedation score, verbal pain score, or numeric pain score, and duration of administered first analgesic in the postoperative period. Additional dose of analgesics were administered in 7, 7, and 11 of the patients in group 1, group 2, and group 3, respectively. We found a significant difference between groups 1 and 2 in blood pressure (P = .017 and P = .014). We found a significant difference in group 1 in heart rate (P = .002). Conclusion. More effective analgesia protocols need to be identified for pain control in patients of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. It is thought that the effectiveness of pain control may increase the number of donors and progress in the treatment of patients with renal failure.