Effect of oral low dose pregabalin on succinylcholine induced fasciculations and myalgia -A prospective randomized double blind placebo-controlled study

Abstract

Introduction: Among the depolarizing muscle relaxants, Succinylcholine is the widely used depolarizing agent until today in anaesthesia practice. Side effects like hyperkalemia, fasciculations, myalgia, increased intracranial pressure and intraocular pressure are common with the use of this drug. Pretreatment with various drugs have been proven to lessen these side effects. In our study, low dose of oral pregabalin was used as a premedication to assess its effects on the incidence and severity of fasciculations and postoperative myalgia caused by Succinylcholine administration. Materials and Methods: 60 patients of either gender undergoing elective ENT surgeries under general anaesthesia were randomly allocated to two groups of 30 each. Patients in Group PG (pregabalin group) received 75 mg of pregabalin orally 1 h prior to surgery and patients in Group CG (control group) received matching placebo. Fasciculations and myalgia grading was done by a blinded observer. Haemodynamic variables were measured at regular intervals. Results: Both groups were comparable in regard to Demographic data (p > 0.05). We didn't find any significant difference in the fasciculations incidence (p=0.702) and myalgia incidence (p=0.081) between the two groups. But the severity of fasciculations is statistically significant between the groups (< 0.001). After 24 h of surgery, severity of myalgia is mild (86.9%) in PG group when compared to CG group which was of moderate variety (80.7%) (P < 0.001). Conclusion:Low dose oral pregabalin-75 mg decreases the severity of succinylcholine-induced fasciculations and myalgia. There is not much effect on the incidence of fasciculations and myalgia in patients undergoing elective ENT surgeries.