A Comparative Study of Duloxetine with Pregabalin as a Preemptive Analgesic in Lumbar Spine Surgery: A Prospective Randomized Study

Preemptive analgesia is a method of administration of drugs prior to surgery involving blocking noxious stimuli across the perioperative period. It involves blocking the pain pathway preemptively before injury-induced hypersensitivity manifests. To compare the analgesic efficacy of duloxetine with pregabalin as preemptive analgesic in lumbar spine surgeries. Randomised, double-blinded, prospective study. Fifty patients of both sexes between 18-55yrs undergoing elective lumbar spine surgery were randomly allocated into two groups, group P and group D of twenty-five patients each. Group P received 75 mg pregabalin once daily for three days, followed by 150 mg pregabalin daily for the next four days till the day of surgery. Group D received 20 mg duloxetine once daily for three days, followed by 40 mg duloxetine twice daily for the next four days till the day of surgery. Both the groups were primarily evaluated in terms of time for request of 1st rescue analgesic and total intraoperative analgesic requirement in terms of fentanyl boluses required; among other parameters. The time for request of 1st rescue analgesic postoperatively was significantly longer in the pregabalin group (396 ± 267.77 min) than in the duloxetine group (218.4 ± 96.9 min), P = 0.003. Pregabalin recipients required considerably less rescue analgesics in terms of dosage, P = 0.006. Also, pregabalin exhibited better postoperative pain control than duloxetine as reflected by NRS comparative scores. No statistical difference was appreciated in terms of intraoperative fentanyl requirement, intraoperative hemodynamic control; nausea and sleepiness. Pregabalin is more efficacious as a preemptive analgesic than duloxetine in lumbar spine surgery.