Comparasion of intravenous Nalbuphine versus intravenous Paracetamol for postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing surgeries under general anaesthesia

Abstract

Postoperative pain is the most annoying symptom that every patient will complain after the surgery. Relief of this pain greatly improves the patient satisfaction, compliance and recovery. Opioids and NSAIDs are the most commonly used analgesics in the postoperative period. The need for the study was to compare the efficacy of intravenous Nalbuphine over intravenous Paracetamol in the postoperative period. Materials and Methods: 60 patients who underwent elective surgeries under general anaesthesia were selected for the study. 30 patients in Group P received Inj. Paracetamol 15 mg/kg body wt. and 30 patients in Group N received Inj. Nalbuphine-0.15 mg/kg body wt over 15 min. Both the groups received the study drug half an hour before the completion of surgery. Postoperative pain scores were measured using VAS pain score and postoperative haemodynamic parameters were measured at regular intervals. The time for the first dose of rescue analgesia was noted. Side effects like sedation, nausea, vomiting, pruritus were assessed at regular intervals postoperatively until 10 hours. Results: Demographic profile were comparable between the groups. Both Nalbuphine and Paracetamol can be effectively used for treating postoperative pain. But Nalbuphine is used as safer alternative since the duration of analgesia is longer in Nalbuphine group when compared to Paracetamol group without significant side effects. Haemodynamic stability was maintained in both the groups. Conclusions: IV Nalbuphine is a better cost effective alternative to IV Paracetamol in alleviating the postoperative pain with prolonged duration of analgesia and hemodynamic stability without significant side effects.