Efficacy and safety of prolonged intravenous infusion of lidocaine for postoperative analgesia and recovery after surgical procedures in children aged 8-17 years

Postoperative pain control in pediatric practice is an important issue not only for patients but also for the health care system overall. The results of meta-analyses and a large number of studies have shown that intravenous infusions of lidocaine significantly improve the quality of postoperative analgesia and help reduce the consumption of narcotic analgesics after various surgical procedures in adult patients. This technique is rarely reported in the pediatric population due to insufficient data on its efficacy and safety. The purpose - to evaluate the efficacy and safety of perioperative continuous intravenous infusion of lidocaine as a component of multimodal analgesia in children aged 8 years and older to improve pain control and quick recovery after surgery. Materials and methods. The prospective controlled study included 74 (50 boys, 24 girls) children who underwent surgical procedures under general anesthesia. The age of the patients was from eight to 18 years. Patients were divided into two groups: the (study) Group 1 (n=28) included children who received intravenous lidocaine as a component of multimodal analgesia in the perioperative period, and the second (control) group (n=46) included children who were not administered lidocaine. Pain intensity, duration of the postoperative narcotic analgesics administration and their dosage, the time for recovery of intestinal motility, the transition period to full enteral nutrition, the length of hospital stay, and the nature of postoperative complications were evaluated. Data analysis was performed using the statistical package “SPSS 20” (SPSS Inc.) version 21.0.0 for Windows. Results. The results of our study demonstrated that pain intensity, as well as total postoperative morphine requirement, were significantly lower in the lidocaine group compared to the control group during the 48-hour follow-up period (p<0.05). Additional morphine analgesia on postoperative day 1 was documented in 5 (17.9%) patients in the lidocaine group and 19 (41.3%) patients in the control group. Intestinal motility was restored within 3.79±1.81 hours postoperatively in the study group and was significantly shorter compared to the control group. In the postoperative period, there was a significantly lower frequency of postoperative nausea in patients in the study group. Side effects of lidocaine infusion were not registered. Conclusions. Prolonged perioperative infusion of lidocaine as a component of multimodal analgesia helps to reduce the consumption of narcotic analgesics and significantly improves the quality of pain syndrome treatment in the postoperative period in children. Due to the earlier restoration of bowel motility, lidocaine infusion may be useful for rapid postoperative rehabilitation programs. The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of all participating institutions. The informed consent of the patient was obtained for conducting the studies. No conflict of interests was declared by the authors.