Intraoperative esmolol infusion reduces postoperative analgesic consumption and anaesthetic use during septorhinoplasty: a randomized trial

Beta-adrenergic antagonists during general anesthesia reduced postoperative pain: a systematic review and a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Five studies were placebo-controlled [5,[9][10][11][12], five were active-controlled [13][14][15][16][17], and one was placebo-and active-controlled [18]. Trial sizes ranged between 40 and 100 patients.…”

“…Trial sizes ranged between 40 and 100 patients. The patients underwent cholecystectomy (n = 4) [11,14,15,18], gynecological surgery (n = 4) [5,10,12,13], inguinal herniorrhaphy (n = 1) [16], orthopedic surgery (n = 1) [17], and septorhinoplasty (n = 1) [9].…”

“…Two different beta-adrenergic antagonists were used; esmolol in ten trials [5,[9][10][11][13][14][15][16][17][18] and propranolol in a single trial [12]. Routes of administration were intravenous as bolus and continuous infusion for esmolol or by mouth for propranolol.…”

“…The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used in seven trials [5,9,11,12,14,17,18], and the numerical rating scale (NRS) [10,15] or the verbal ratings scale (VRS) [13,16] were used in two trials each.…”

“…Postoperative pain was alleviated with morphine (n = 4) [5,9,12,15], fentanyl (n = 4) [10,14,16,18], hydrocodone (n = 1) [13], or tramadol and diclofenac (n = 1) [11]. Analgesic use was not standardized in one trial [17].…”