The Efficacy and Safety of Incisional Preemptive Analgesia Using Loxoprofen Sodium Patch in Patients Undergoing Thoracoscopic Surgery: a Multi-center Randomized Controlled Trial.

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is less invasive compared to traditional thoracotomy, but it is still reported that the incidence of acute pain following VATS exceeds 80%. Inadequate postoperative analgesia may trigger a series of adverse physiological stress responses, increase the occurrence of postoperative complications, and affect the rehabilitation process. If acute pain is not managed promptly and sufficiently, nearly one-quarter of patients may develop chronic pain, impacting normal life and sleep quality after discharge. Acute pain after VATS is mainly caused by the release of inflammatory mediators after soft tissue injury at the surgical site, which activates peripheral pain receptors and leads to abnormal action potentials transmitted along A δ and C fibers. Inflammatory mediators released from the soft tissues around incisions not only significantly alters the chemical microenvironment at the peripheral terminals of nociceptors, directly inducing pain, but also sensitizes afferent fibers, contributing to peripheral sensitization. Therefore, drugs with potent local anti-inflammatory properties such as Loxoprofen Sodium may play a key role in preventing or reducing postoperative pain. The investigators conducted a multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled clinical study to explore the use of Loxoprofen Sodium Patch for preoperative local incision analgesia in VATS patients. The investigators aim to observe whether this method can effectively alleviate postoperative incision pain, reduce the dosage of postoperative analgesics and the side effects caused using postoperative analgesics, improve patient satisfaction, and provide new ideas for postoperative analgesia in VATS patients, promoting rapid recovery after VATS.