Role of clonidine in management of pain after lumbar discectomy

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the role of clonidine in management of pain after lumbar discectomy. Materials and Methods: In this study, two arms were randomly divided into two groups using placebo and a single clinical trial based on recall of patients who were candidates for standard single-discectomy surgery. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used to measure lower limb and lower back pain in patients who received clonidine and placebo. All patients received opioid (morphine) treatment after surgery. Clonidine was used as a 0.1 mg Tablet 2 hours before surgery in intervention group. Prior to surgery, patients in the control group were given placebo Tablets using rice prepared in the shape, size, color, and equivalent weight of the real drug by the nurse, which was considered to be a blind study. All patients were meditated by same anesthesia profile and protocol to control postoperative pain in both groups. Gabapentin and morphine as opioid, was used for anti-neuropathic pain management. Results: In this study, 60 patients were divided into intervention and placebo groups. 32 patients were male. The mean age of the patients was 52.05 years. In both groups, preoperative paresthesia were observed in 4 cases of paresthesia. After operation in the intervention group, 2 cases and in the placebo group 4 cases of paresthesia were seen. The mean preoperative low back pain in the intervention group was 7.60±0.49 and in the placebo group was 7.56±0.62 (p=0.820). The mean preoperative lower limb pain in the intervention group was 7.53±0.62 and in the placebo group was 7.46±0.57 (p=0.669). Comparison of low back pain and lower limb pain between the intervention and placebo groups before and at the hours after surgery showed that the pain in the oral clonidine group was significantly lower than the placebo group until 6 hours after surgery; but there was an increase in low back pain and lower extremity pain in the two study groups at 12 and 24 hours postoperatively, with no significant difference between the two groups (p> 0.05).