Effect of preemptive analgesia with flurbiprofen axetil on patient-controlled intravenous analgesia with tramadol in patients undergoing postburn plastic surgery

Objective: To observe the preemptive analgesic effect of flurbiprofen axetil for post-operative pain relief.

Methods: Sixty ASA class I or II patients undergoing postburn plastic surgery were randomly assigned into two groups to receive intravenous administration of 100 mg flurbiprofen axetil (group F, n=30) and 10 ml intravenous saline (group C, n=30) 30 min before surgery. After the operation, all the patients received patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) with tramadol for pain relief. The postoperative analgesic effect was assessed by visual analog scales (VAS) at 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 h after surgery, with tramadol requirements and the adverse effects were recorded.

Results: At 1, 2, 4, and 8 h after the operation, the patients in group F showed significantly lowered VAS scores as compared with the patients in group C (P<0.05). The requirement of tramadol was also significantly less in group F than in group C (182.9-/+37.4 vs 227.3-/+49.8 mg, P<0.05). No significant difference was found in the adverse effects between the two groups.

Conclusions: Flurbiprofen axetil can produce preemptive analgesia and reduce the tramadol dose during postoperative PCIA in patients undergoing postburn plastic operations.