The Effect of Dexamethasone Administration on Postoperative Pain Following Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the standard surgical procedure in symptomatic gallstones. Laparoscopy is a minimally invasive surgical method. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of dexamethasone (DX) administration on postoperative pain management following laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Materials and Methods: 165 patients with laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery were studied in this double-blind clinical trial. They were randomly divided into three groups: A) DX1 (Intravenous DX): Injection of 0.1 mg/kg DX intravenously, B) DX2 (Local DX): Injection of 0.1 mg/kg of DX, diluted with normal saline, injection volume of 10 mL, injection into the bed of the removed gallbladder through a laparoscopic 10 mm subxiphoid trocar, and C) Control: Injection of placebo, the volume and injection site are similar to group B. The amount of postoperative pain in patients was recorded using the Visual Analogue Scale score in 5 times (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, and 12 hours after entering the recovery room). Results: In terms of postoperative pain, there was a statistically significant difference between the studied groups so that the amount of postoperative pain 6 hours and 12 hours after surgery in the intravenous DX group was lower than that in the local DX and placebo groups (P = 0.001). Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the administration of intravenous DX has a better effect than the administration of local DX in pain management after laparoscopic cholecystectomy.