Comparison of effects of patient-controlled intravenous analgesia with nefopam or buprenorphine after lower abdominal or lower limb surgery

Objective To compare the clinical efficacy of nefopam or buprenorphine with a patient- controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) delivery system.Methods In the prospective,randomized,double blind study,authors evaluated 40 adult patients scheduled for elective lower abdominal or lower limb surgery undergoing general anesthesia.Immediatelly after operation,they were blindly randomized into two groups.Group nefopam (group N,n=20) was given 0.1% nefopam +5μg/ml fentanyl,group buprenorphine (group B,n=20)was given 0.0012% buprenorphine +5μg/ml fentanyl.The analgesic device was programmed 2ml/h,0.5ml on demand with a lockout time of 15 min.The total volume was 100ml.The patients were followed up for 48h and the visual analog scale (VAS),the sedation score (SS),the side effects such as nausea,vomiting,urosehsis,respiratory depression,pruritus,urine retention were observed.Results VAS showed no difference between the two groups.The SS of group B was higher than that of group N (P＜0.05).The rates of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) of group B were higher than those of group N (P＜0.05).Conclusion When used in postoperative PCIA,nefopam can provide the same and satisfied effects as buprenorphine with a lower frequency of PONV.