Vaginal Packing After Pelvic Floor Reconstructive Surgery: Does the Soaking Agent Used for Packing (Bupivacaine, Estrogen or Saline) Impact Postoperative Pain Scores?

STUDY

OBJECTIVE

Vaginal packing is traditionally placed after pelvic floor reconstructive surgery (PFRS) to prevent hematoma formation. We seek to determine if there is a difference in postoperative pain scores after PFRS if vaginal packing is soaked with estrogen cream, bupivacaine, or saline. The primary outcome was pain as measured by a visual analog scale at 2 hours, 6 hours, and 1 day postoperatively. Secondary outcomes include changes in hemoglobin, urinary retention and length of stay (LOS) in hospital.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study.

SETTING

Tertiary care academic teaching hospital. All PFRS is performed by fellowship-trained urogynecologists.

PARTICIPANTS

Consenting patients undergoing PFRS.

INTERVENTIONS: At the completion of surgery, gauze packing soaked with either estrogen cream, 0.25% bupivacaine with 1% epinephrine, or normal saline was placed inside the vagina and removed on postoperative day 1.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN

RESULTS

We included 210 patients (74 estrogen, 66 bupivacaine, 70 saline). There was no significant difference in mean postoperative pain scores between the groups (estrogen, bupivacaine, saline-soaked vaginal packs respectively) at 2 hours (2.66 ± 2.25, 2.30 ± 2.17, 2.24 ± 2.07; p = .4656), 6 hours (2.99 ± 2.38, 2.52 ± 2.30, 2.36 ± 2.01; p = .2181) or on postoperative day 1 (1.89 ± 2.01 vs 2.08 ± 2.15 vs 2.44 ± 2.19; p = .2832) as measured by visual analog scale scores (0-10). There was no difference in the secondary outcomes of change in pre/postoperative hemoglobin (21.8 ± 10.73g/L, 20.09 ± 11.55 g/L, 21.7 ± 9.62g/L, p = .68), urinary retention (37%, 45% and 48%, p = .45), LOS (1.05 ± 0.46 days, 1.02 ± 0.12, 1.03 ± 0.24, p = .97) or in-hospital opioid usage during admission (represented in morphine milligram equivalents [median (IQR1, IQR3)], Kruskal-Wallis test): 11.25 mg (0, 33), 7.5 mg (0, 22.5) and 15 mg (0, 33.88) p = .41.

CONCLUSION

There was no difference found between soaking vaginal packing with estrogen cream, bupivacaine, or saline after PFRS with respect to postoperative pain scores, LOS, in-hospital opioid usage, or urinary retention. Saline-soaked packing is an equivalent alternative to estrogen or bupivacaine vaginal packing.