Preemptive Analgesia with Gabapentin and Etoricoxib

Given the expanding role of ambulatory surgery and the need to facilitate an earlier hospital discharge, improving post operative pain control has become increasingly important issue for all anesthesiologists. An increasing number of complex operations are being performed on an out patient basis for which the use of opioid based intravenous patient controlled medication and central neuraxial analgesia are not practical techniques for pain management.Preemptive analgesia; it is based on the assumption that analgesic therapy initiated before surgery is more effective than therapy initiated after surgery.Gabapentin is an antihyerpalgesic drug that selectively affects the nociceptive process involving the central sensitization.Its use as premedication has revealed a significant reduction in pain scores and post operative opioid consumption. In this study etoricoxib was used in combination with gabapentin.