Effect of premedication with Methylprednisolone or Dexamethasone in severity of pain after infusion of propofol

Abstract

Incidence of pain after injection of propofol is the most common problems in general anesthesia. This study assested effect of premedication by methylprednisolone and dexamethasone on the pain due to injection of propofol. Methods: In the double blind clinical trial, after placement of 18 gauge angiocatheter on the dorsal surface of hand and then closing tourniquet in upper part of the fore arm, patients devided to 3 groups. For normal saline group (NS): 5 ml, Methylprednisolone group (M): 125 mg/5 ml and Dexamethasone group (D): .0.25 or 0.5 mg/kg injected. Then 5 ml solusion of propofol injected after 30 seconds. Two anesthesiologists evaluated severity of pain with use of McCriffick 4 points Verbal Rating Scale (VRS) and Rochette criteria in 5, 10, 15 and 20 seconds after injection of propofol. Finally, data analysed by One Way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis methods in SPSS V.22 software. Results: 120 patients (64 man and 56 women) who candidate for elective surgery, accidentally selected for this study. There was not significant realationship beween sex and severity of pain. The significant difference was observed in systoilic blood pressure on 25 and 30 minutes (respectively, p=0.006 and p=0.01), and heart rate on 5, 10, 20, 25 and 30 minutes (p˂0.05) after induction of general anesthesia. Frequency of severity of pain after injection of propofol was significant on 20 seconds between M and NS groups (p=0.018), after 10 seconds between NS and D groups (p=0.014) and after 10 seconds between M and D groups (p=0.038). Comparison of severity of pain on 10 seconds after injection of propofol in 3 groups showed premediction by dexamethasone significantly decreased pain (p=0.012).