The effect of perioperative intravenous infusion of lidocaine on the quality of postoperative recovery after various types of surgical interventions in children

Introduction. Early postoperative recovery in pediatric practice is an important problem for patients and the health care system as a whole. Aim: to investigate the quality of postoperative recovery of children after various types of surgical interventions. Materials and methods. The study involved 150 children who underwent trauma (group I), abdominal (group II) and urological (group III) surgical interventions. Each of these groups was divided into two subgroups: Іb (n=17), ІІb (n=19) and ІІІb (n=24) subgroups - included children who received intravenous lidocaine in the perioperative period, control Ia (n=23), IIa (n=29) and IIIa (n=38) subgroups - included children to whom lidocaine was not prescribed. The PaedQoR-15 questionnaire was used to assess the quality of postoperative recovery. Results. The use of perioperative intravenous lidocaine infusion is associated with an increase, compared to the control group, in the PaedQoR-15 score by 10.6% at 24 hours after trauma surgical interventions, by 21.3% and by 17% after abdominal and urological surgical interventions due to a decrease in the frequency of postoperative nausea after abdominal surgery, skin itching after all analyzed types of surgical treatment, a reduction 26.7% reduction in the time until the first gas release and by 19.3% reduction in the time until the appearance of bowel movements/defecation after abdominal surgery. It was observed that the stay of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) was reduced by 120 minutes after trauma surgery and by 1.8 times after abdominal surgery. Conclusions. Perioperative lidocaine infusion may be useful in rapid postoperative rehabilitation programs. The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of all participating institutions. The informed consent of parents and children was obtained for conducting the studies. No conflict of interests was declared by the authors.