Aim–

To evaluate the efficacy oforalflupirtine in reducing acute postoperative pain after laparoscopic cholecystectomy and toobserve whether the drug has sedative orany other adverse effects.

Materials and Methods–

The study was conducted on 60 adult patients who were randomly divided in to two groups, who received flupirtine 200mg or placebo orally 2 hours prior to induction of general anaesthesia.Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Ramsay Sedation Score (RSS), time to first rescue analgesic requirement,incidence of Post–Operative Nausea and Vomiting (PONV)or any other side effects, if any were noted.

Results–

Patients who received flupirtine had lower VAS scores during first four hours postoperatively.Rescue analgesic requirement was less in flupirtine group when compared to placebo. There were no significant side effects except for sedation in flupirtinegroup as compared with placebo.

Conclusion–

This study showed that pre–emptive analgesia with oral flupirtine 200mg 2 hours prior to laparoscopic cholecystectomyis effective compared to placebo and provided adequate pain relief and sedation during the immediate postoperative period.