Background: We studied the effects of oral gabapentin and intravenous (I.V.) dexamethasone given together or separately 1 h before the start of surgery on intraoperative hemodynamics Postoperative analgesia and postoperative nausea vomiting (PONV) in patients undergoing gynaecological procedure.
Materials and methods: Patients were randomly divided into three groups: Group 1 (gabapentin, n = 46) received 400 mg gabapentin, Group 2 (dexamethasone, n = 46) received 8 mg dexamethasone and Group 3 (gabapentin plus dexamethasone, n = 46) received both 400 mg gabapentin and 8 mg dexamethasone I.V. 1 h before the start of surgery. Standard induction and maintenance of anesthesia were accomplished. Visual analog scale for pain was recorded for 12 h. Side effects were noted.
Results: Hemodynamics at various time interval (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 min) of laryngeal mask airway insertion and PONV were found significantly lower in Group 3 than in Group 1 and Group 2 (P < 0.05). The average time to first postoperative analgesic requirement at (visual analogue score >3) was significantly longer in Group 3 (510.00 ± 61.64 min) than in Group 1 (352.83 ± 80.61 min) and in Group 2 (294.78 ± 60.76 min), (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: The present study concludes that the combination of oral Gabapentin and I.V. dexamethasone has significantly less hemodynamic changes, better postoperative analgesia and less incidence of PONV than individual administration of each drug.
Keywords: Analgesia; dexamethasone; gabapentin; postoperative nausea vomiting.