Surgical Pain Control With Ropivacaine by Atomized Delivery

Practice guidelines from the American Society of Anesthesiologists peri-operative techniques for pain management have remained essentially unchanged over the last 10 years (3). Current acute pain-management strategies include 1.) Epidural or intrathecal opioids 2.) Patient-controlled devices delivering systemic opioids and 3.) Regional techniques such as peripheral nerve blocks and post-incisional infiltration with local anesthetics.

The use of epidural and systemic opioids results in significant side-effects such as post-operative nausea and ileus which often lead to increased hospital stay. The literature supporting the benefit of preincisional infiltration with anesthetics remains equivocal.

A recently published study describes the use of intraperitoneal Ropivacaine (2mh/kg) during laparoscopic appendectomy(4). The study was a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study using Ropivacaine (vs placebo) injected through the laparoscopic ports prior to the start of the appendectomy in 63 patients(4).

Patients treated with Ropivacaine had a significant decrease in visual analog pain scores post-operatively and had decreased narcotic use during their hospital stay compared to placebo. There were no side-effects found with the one-time use of the Ropivacaine.

The results of the above study and review of an additional 24 randomized controlled trials conducted from 1993-2003 are not felt to be generalizable to pelvic surgery where port placement and the operative procedures vary significantly. Hence this study was undertaken to investigate the role of intraperitoneal Ropivacaine as an adjuvant to muscle relaxants and narcotics at the time of pelvic surgery.