Sublingual buprenorphine versus intravenous morphine as a premedicant and postoperative analgesic in laparoscopic appendectomy under general anesthesia—A randomized control trial

Background: Minimally invasive surgery aims to minimize trauma, cause rapid mobilization, and thus achieve a satisfactory therapeutic result. But the challenging fact with the laparoscopic surgery is its hemodynamic changes because of pneumoperitoneum and the complex visceral pain in the postoperative period. Aim: To find a safe, reliable, and highly effective drug as a premedicant in laparoscopic appendectomies under general anesthesia. Materials and Methods: A total of 110 patients undergoing laparoscopic appendectomies were randomized into two groups: group M (morphine) and group B (buprenorphine) with 55 patients in each group. Group B patients received 0.4 μg of buprenorphine tablet sublingually 1 h before surgery and group M patients received 0.1 mg/kg of intravenous morphine 10 min before anesthesia induction. Intraoperative hemodynamics, postoperative pain score, rescue analgesic requirement, and complications were recorded. Results: Intraoperative vitals that is heart rate and mean arterial pressure were significantly stable in group B compared to group M. Only 11 % patients in group B required dexmedetomidine infusion compared to 37% in group M, to control intraoperative hypertension. Visual analog scale (VAS) values in group B at 2nd (1.30 ± 0.46), 4th (1.31 ± 0.54), and 6th hour (1.33 ± 0.63) were significantly less than group M at 2nd (4.56 ± 0.65), 4th (5.68 ± 0.72), and 6th h (4.45 ± 1.15). Duration of analgesia in postoperative period in group B (260.0 ± 28.52 min) was significantly longer than group M (124.10 ± 20.832 min). Conclusion: Sublingual buprenorphine premedication is an alternative to intravenous injection of morphine with perioperative hemodynamic stability and better postoperative analgesia.