Effect of Intraoperative Intravenous Lidocaine on Pain After Hysterectomy

Study design A prospective, randomized, double-blind study was conducted according to ethical guidelines for research involving humans. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the institution and all patients signed a free informed consent form. The patients were randomly allocated to two groups consisting of the same number of subjects by drawing lots.

One physician prepared the solutions and handed them over to the anesthetist who was unaware of the content of the solutions. The volume of the solutions was the same. The researcher was unaware to which group the patient belonged until the end of the study.

Exclusion criteria Excluded from the study were patients with cardiac arrhythmia; myocardiopathy; altered cardiac conduction; psychiatric, hepatic or respiratory disease; and patients receiving any type of analgesic during the week before surgery.

Patients Forty women (ASA 1 or 2) aged 18 to 60 years undergoing hysterectomy were studied.

Treatment Patients of group 1 (n = 20) received lidocaine (2 mg/kg/h) and patients of group 2 (n = 20) received 0.9% saline infusion throughout the surgical procedure.