Introduction:

Pain in renal donors after open nephrectomy, transcends in full recovery of activities in daily life and exposes an economic impact in health institutions.

Objective:

To describe the costs of protocolized analgesia during the immediate postoperative period of renal donor patient.

Material and methods:

We conducted a longitudinal, randomized, non-blinded clinical trial which compared two different analgesic treatments: one protocolized versus conventional analgesia through a cost analysis model from the Institutional Social Security perspective.

Results:

In average, protocolized analgesia obtained a higher cost with 53.25 US$ (52.34-53.79) opposed to the conventional analgesia treatment with 18.84 US$ (4.55-19.34); U = -6.0, p < 0.001. However, 89.2% of the patients in protocolized analgesia qualified this intervention as excellent compared to the conventional treatment with only 41.2%, χ2 = 18.78; p < 0.001. Similarly, patients in protocolized analgesia were more satisfied with a reported median (Me) = 10; (25th percentile = 10-75th percentile = 10) compared to those who received conventional treatment, Me = 8; (25th percentile = 8-75th percentile = 9) (U = -5.9, p < 0.001).

Conclusions.

The use of Protocolized Analgesia with epidural catheter showed a clinical and statistically significant difference concerning to pain, efficacy and a greater satisfaction report in patients undergoing open nephrectomy for renal donation, although does not decrease the costs of analgesic care during immediate postoperative period.