[Comparative study of the effect of two analgesic techniques in postoperative pain control in pediatric surgery].

OBJECTIVE: The study purpose was to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of the association of paracetamol + metamizol versus tramadol in pediatric surgery.

METHODS: A prospective, randomized and double-blinded study of 60 patients between 3 and 8 years, undergoing abdominal surgery in the ambulatory unit. Patients were divided into 2 groups who received paracetamol plus metamizol (Group I) or tramadol (Group II), prior to the end of the procedure. The anesthetic technique in all cases consisted of general anesthesia balanced. The study compared the pain intensity according to the Wong-Baker scale, the need of rescue analgesia, and the side effects every hour in the postoperative period. The statistical analysis was performed using the chi-square test and T-Student test.

RESULTS: The analgesia time for Group I was 202 ± 25 minutes and 215 ± 17 minutes for Group II without statistical significance. There was no significant differences (p= 0.233) in the pain scores; only 3 children in the first group had more than 4 points on the Wong-Baker scale versus 5 children in the tramadol group. The overall side effects were significantly higher (p< 0.05) in Group II, 5 patients presented vomiting compared to no child in Group I. The average dose of morphine chloride was 0.6 ± 0.2 mg.

CONCLUSIONS: Both techniques provide adequate pain control in the postoperative period of abdominal ambulatory surgery in pediatric patients. However, children treated with tramadol presented a greater number of side effects compared to the NSAIDs group.