Comparisons of the uses of flurbiprofen, lidocaine and dexamethasone in preventing injection pain caused by propofol

The objective of the study is to compare the different effects of flurbiprofen, lidocaine and dexamethasone on reduction of pain caused by propofol injection. 100 patients undergoing middle otoplasty surgery with general anesthesia were randomly assigned into four groups with 25 patients in each group. F, L, D, and C groups were treated with intravenous flurbiprofen 50 mg/5 ml, lidocaine 40 mg/5 ml, dexamethasone 5 mg/5 ml and saline 5 ml, respectively, with a proximal tourniquet. The injection site pain was recorded immediately with verbal rating scale (VBS), and the tourniquet was released 2 min after, followed by propofol infusion at the rate of 0.5 ml/s to reach a final dose of 0.5 mg/kg, while the pain was recorded after the infusion. The follow up was done at 30 min and 4 h after the operations with the pain recorded using visual analogue scale (VAS). The injection site pain before propofol infusion in all groups showed no difference among each other; while the F, L, and D pre-treatment reduced the pain caused by propofol infusion in comparison to group C (P<0.05), without differences among the three groups. The post-operation pain at 30 min and 4 h in F group were lower than the other three groups (P<0.05). Flurbiprofen pre-injection could prevent the pain caused by propofol during infusion as well as the postoperative pain.   Key words: Flurbiprofen, dexamethasone, lidocaine, propofol, injection pain.