Intraoperative utilization of dexamethasone/bupivacaine/gentamicin solution in laparoscopic assisted vaginal hysterectomy and pain management.

Adequately controlling pain is a key component of postoperative care after a hysterectomy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of two intraperitoneal (IP) administered solutions during Laparoscopic Assisted Vaginal Hysterectomy (LAVH), on the amount of postoperative self-administered morphine. In this prospective, randomized, double blinded study, twenty women undergoing LAVH randomly distributed to two treatment groups: (1) 100 ml dexamethasone/ bupivacaine/ gentamicin (DMG) solution: 60 cc injected vaginally at cuff and 40 cc placed topically via laparoscopy over intra-peritoneal postoperative surfaces (IP) and 5 ml bupivacaine or 5 ml saline injected at the laparoscopic incision sites, (2) 100 ml saline solution: 60 cc injected vaginally at cuff and 40 cc placed topically via laparoscopy over intra-peritoneal postoperative surfaces (IP) and 5 ml bupivacaine or 5 ml saline injected at the laparoscopic incision sites. The amount of morphine utilized by the patients was documented from their patient controlled anesthesia (PCA) pump. Patient parameters recorded included perceived pain score, height, weight, age, race, reason for surgery, pre-surgery medications, American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) classification, length of the surgery and estimated blood loss (EBL). Age, EBL, length of surgery, and ASA classification were not significantly different between the groups. The postoperative amount of morphine utilized was higher at 4 (p=.02) and 16 hours (p = .04) and tended to be higher at 8, 12 hours (p=.06), and 24 hours (p=.09) in the saline IP group. Overall the saline IP group (n=10) used (median; range) 21.5; 8-82 mg of morphine while the DMG IP group (n=10) used 10.5; 1-23 mg. No participants reported a postoperative infection. This study demonstrates that intraoperative utilization of DMG solution during LAVH enables patients clinically to have less perceived pain and subsequently tend to utilize about half the amount of morphine, helping to avoid the potential harmful side effects and adverse reactions of morphine.