Post-operative pain management for single-level lumbar disc herniation surgery: A comparison of betamethasone, ibuprofen, and pregabalin.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES\nThe aim of this study was to compare the effects of pregabalin, betamethasone, and ibuprofen on post-operative pain management in patients with single-level lumbar disc herniation surgery.\n\n\nMETHODS\nThe present study was a randomized prospective study conducted at a tertiary university hospital. Sixty patients were equally divided into three groups based on whether they were treated with pregabalin (Group 1), ibuprofen (Group 2), and betamethasone (Group 3). Patients whose pre-operative back and leg pain was evaluated using a visual analog scale (VAS) and the Oswestry scale were administered 100 mg tramadol hydrochloride during surgery. The treatment efficiency was compared by assessing post-operative VAS scores at 24 h, 1 week, and 1 month after and Oswestry scale at 1 month after surgery.\n\n\nRESULTS\nThe VAS scores for pre-operative and post-operative back pain did not show significant differences between the results at 1 week and 1 month in any group. There was no significant drug efficacy between post-operative week 1 and post-operative month 1, except for pregabalin; an early effect was less frequently observed in the pregabalin group than in the ibuprofen and betamethasone groups.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nAlthough the three groups treated for single-level lumbar disc herniation received similar post-operative analgesia at the end of post-operative month 1, the decrease in VAS scores for back and leg pain was significant in the betamethasone group in the 1st post-operative 24 h and post-operative month 1.