Advantage of Tramadol in Local Analgesia Post-Sternotomy

Summary

Sternotomy, the reference approach for heart surgery, may induce profound and intense post-operative pain. One method of analgesia used is patient-controlled intravenous morphine. The analgesic efficacy of continuous wound infiltration at the sternum following heart surgery has been demonstrated. The analgesic catheter placed near the sternotomy wound reduces the consumption of morphine. The aim of this study is to determine whether a bolus of tramadol associated with the continuous administration of levobupivacaine via the wound catheter could potentiate the local anaesthetic effects, thus leading to a decreased consumption of postoperative intravenous morphine, and a decrease in morphine-related side effects.

Timeline

Start

2015-10

Primary completion

2016-05

Completion

2016-10

Outcome

Missed primary endpoint

paper The morphine consumption was found to be comparable in the two groups (38 mg vs 32 mg, p=0.102). PMID 31571977 ↗

paper The addition of tramadol to the local anesthetic delivered via a wound catheter following sternotomy did not reduce the patients' post-operative morphine consumption. PMID 31571977 ↗

Publications

• Results Bethenod F, Ellouze O, Berthoud V, Missaoui A, Cransac A, Aho S, Bouchot O, Girard C, Guinot PG, Bouhemad B. A single dose of tramadol in continuous wound analgesia with levobupivacaine does not reduce post-sternotomy pain: a randomized controlled trial. J Pain Res. 2019 Sep 18;12:2733-2741. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S211042. eCollection 2019.

Drugs

Evaluation	Drug	Modality	Dose	Route
Subject	Tramadol	Other / unclassified	2 mg/kg	Other
Comparator	Levobupivacaine	Other / unclassified	1.25 %	Other

Indications

No indication recorded.