Introduction:

Postoperative pain reaches up to 80% of patients undergoing surgery, increasing morbidity and costs. Currently, the use of multimodal therapies is recommended. Pregabalin has been used in abdominal surgeries with favorable results. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of two doses of premedication with pregabalina orally, compared with placebo to reduce postoperative pain in patients operated on knee arthroscopy with anterior cruciate ligament repair.

Material and methods:

Pilot phase, prospective, comparative and blind study. We included 39 patients scheduled for knee arthroscopy with anterior cruciate ligament repair, ASA I and II. They were divided into three groups: pregabalin 150 mg n = 13, pregabalin 75 mg n = 13 and placebo n = 13 who were given premedication one hour before surgery. On admission to the post-anesthesia care unit, vital signs, intensity of pain through VAS, nausea or vomiting events, and rescue medication were collected when the VAS was > 3.

Results:

Postoperative pain was significantly lower in the pregabalin 150 mg group at admission to the PACU and at 60 minutes (p = 0.021 and p = 0.045 respectively) compared to pregabalin 75 mg that the pain did not decrease significantly (p = 0.22 and p = 0.4).

Conclusions:

According to the randomized clinical trials and meta-analyzes, until today there is no consensus about the appropriate doses according to the type of patient and surgery. Based on the results of this study, we can recommend the dose of pregabalin 150 mg as a pre-emptive multimodal analgesia in well-selected patients.