Research article
Intravenous flurbiprofen for post-thymectomy pain relief in patients with myasthenia gravis
- † Equal contributors
1 Department of Thoracic Surgery Lung Cancer Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 58, Zhongshan Road 2, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, People’s Republic of China
2 Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, People’s Republic of China
3 Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, People’s Republic of China
4 Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, People’s Republic of China
5 Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Huangpu Division, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 58, Zhongshan Road 2, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, People’s Republic of China
Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery 2012, 7:98 doi:10.1186/1749-8090-7-98
Published: 29 September 2012Abstract
Background
Post-thymectomy pain in myasthenia gravis (MG) patients can inhibit breathing and coughing. Inappropriate usage of analgesics may exacerbate respiratory inhibition and even cause myasthenic crisis. Flurbiprofen is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is commonly used to control moderate postoperative pain and is not associated with respiratory inhibition. We hypothesized that flurbiprofen may provide post-thymectomy pain relief without increasing the risk of complications in MG patients.
Methods
Two hundred MG patients underwent extended thymectomy from March 2006 to December 2010 and were randomly allocated to a flurbiprofen group (110 patients, 50 mg intravenous flurbiprofen axetil) or a control group (90 patients, 100 mg intramuscular tramadol) as postoperative analgesia. Visual analog scale (VAS) pain score, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, pulse oximetry (SpO2), and adverse effects were recorded before and up to 24 h after drug administration.
Results
There were no significant differences in the preoperative clinical characteristics of the flurbiprofen and control (tramadol) groups. Both flurbiprofen and tramadol significantly alleviated post-thymectomy pain (p < 0.05 for both), but patients in flurbiprofen group had significantly lower VAS pain scores at 0.5 h, 2 h, 4 h, and 8 h after surgery (p < 0.05 for all times). There were no significant post-thymectomy changes of heart rate, respiratory rate, mean arterial blood pressure, or SpO2 in either group at all time points.
Conclusions
Post-thymectomy intravenous administration of flurbiprofen axetil provides safe and effective analgesia for MG patients.
