Efficacy of opioids and non-opioid analgesics in the treatment of post procedure pain of burned patients: a narrative review

Abstract Introduction Burns are a common trauma that cause acute severe pain in up to 80% of patients. The objective of this narrative review is to evaluate the efficacy of opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, paracetamol, gabapentinoids, ketamine, and lidocaine in the treatment of acute pain in burn victims. Methodology The databases explored were PubMed, Embase, ClinicalTrials, and OpenGrey. The included randomized, controlled clinical trials assessed the analgesic efficacy of these drugs on hospitalized patients, had no age limit, patients were in the acute phase of the burn injury and were compared to placebo or other analgesic drugs. Studies describing deep sedation, chronic opioid use, chronic pain, and patients taken to reconstructive surgeries were excluded. The Jadad scale was used to evaluate quality. Results Six randomized controlled clinical trials (397 patients) that evaluated the analgesic efficacy of fentanyl (n = 2), nalbuphine (n = 1), ketamine (n = 1), gabapentin (n = 1), and lidocaine (n = 1) to treat post-procedural pain were included. Fentanyl, nalbuphine, and ketamine were effective, while lidocaine was associated with a slight increase in reported pain and gabapentin showed no significant differences. Two studies were of high quality, one was of medium high quality, and three were of low quality. No studies on the efficacy of NSAIDs or paracetamol were found. Conclusion Evidence of efficacy is very limited. Fentanyl, nalbuphine, and ketamine seem to be effective for controlling acute pain in burn patients, whereas gabapentin and lidocaine did not show any efficacy.

Factores preoperatorios de riesgo asociados a conversión a técnica abierta en colecistectomía laparoscópica de urgencia / Preoperative risk factors associated with conversion to open technique in emergency laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Introducción. La colecistectomía laparoscópica es la técnica de elección en pacientes con indicación de extracción quirúrgica de la vesícula; sin embargo, en promedio, el 20 % de estos requieren conversión a técnica abierta. En este estudio se evaluaron los factores preoperatorios de riesgo para conversión en colecistectomía laparoscópica de urgencia. Metodología. Se llevó un estudio de casos y controles no pareado. Se obtuvo información sociodemográfica y de las variables de interés de los registros de las historias clínicas de los pacientes operados entre el 2013 y el 2016. Se identificaron los motivos de conversión de la técnica quirúrgica. Se caracterizó la población de estudio y se estimaron las asociaciones según la naturaleza de las variables. Mediante un análisis de regresión logística se ajustaron las posibles variables de confusión. Resultados. Se analizaron los datos de 444 pacientes (111 casos y 333 controles). La causa de conversión más frecuente fue la dificultad técnica (50,5 %). Se encontró que la mayor edad, el sexo masculino, el antecedente de cirugía abierta en hemiabdomen superior, el signo clínico de Murphy positivo, la dilatación de la vía biliar, la leucocitosis y la mayor experiencia del cirujano fueron los factores de riesgo para la conversión. Se encontró un área bajo la curva ROC de 0,743 (IC95% 0,692-0,794, p≤0,001). Discusión. Existen factores que se asocian a mayor riesgo de conversión en colecistectomía laparoscópica. La mayoría se relaciona con un proceso inflamatorio avanzado, por lo que la intervención temprana y oportuna debe ser el estándar de manejo en el abordaje de pacientes con patología quirúrgica de la vesícula

Introduction: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the preferred technique for patients with indication for gallbladder extraction. Nevertheless, up to near 20% of them require conversion to open surgery. In this study we evaluated preoperative risk factors for conversion in patients undergoing emergency laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Methodology: a case-control unmatched study was conducted. Sociodemographic Information and other variables were obtained from the medical records of patients that underwent surgery in the period 2013 to 2016. Reasons for conversion were identified and the study population was characterized. Correlations tests were established and logistic regression was performed for evaluating the role of confounding factors. Results: we analyzed the medical records of 444 patients (111 cases and 333 controls). The most common reasons for conversion were technical difficulty (50,5%), older age, male sex, previous open upper abdominal surgery, Murphy´s sign, bile duct dilation, total white cell count >12.000/mm3 , and a more experienced surgeon. Area under COR was 0.743 (CI95% 0.692­0.794, p= <0.001). Discussion: some factors increase the risk for conversion to open surgery in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Most of them are related to an advanced gallbladder inflammatory process, thus early and timely intervention should be the gold standard in the management of patients with surgical gallbladder pathology