Postoperative Pain Management After Lumbar Discectomy. A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses and Trial Sequential Analyses - PubMed
6 hours ago
- #lumbar discectomy
- #analgesic strategies
- #postoperative pain
- Postoperative pain management after lumbar discectomy is crucial to prevent delayed recovery, chronic pain, and prolonged hospitalization.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of 76 RCTs (5617 participants) identified 11 analgesic strategies that significantly reduce 24-hour opioid consumption, including paracetamol, NSAIDs, epidural/intrathecal anesthetics, local infiltration, nerve blocks, gabapentin, and pregabalin.
- Several interventions also lowered pain scores at 6 and 24 hours, but the certainty of evidence was low to very low due to methodological limitations, small sample sizes, heterogeneity, and inconsistent baseline analgesia.
- The findings highlight the need for high-quality, standardized clinical trials to confirm effectiveness and inform practice, as current evidence supports cautious use of these analgesics for early postoperative pain control.