Combination analgesic-antispasmodic therapy in postoperative pain.

Pain and muscle spasms are causes of postoperative complaints and complications following spinal surgery. The traditional medical management makes use of narcotic analgesics. The antispasmodics, diazepam and baclofen, might also be effective in pain control. A randomized prospective study of 50 consecutive patients was conducted comparing a regimen of a narcotic analgesic (meperidine hydrochloride) and the two antispasmodic agents versus the narcotic alone with the hope of reducing the requirement, postoperatively, of the narcotic and also the subjective assessments of pain and/or spasm. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the regimen in relieving postoperative spasm. The percentage of patients requiring narcotics and the assessed pain severity were essentially uniform between the groups. Whereas postoperative spasm was a common lament, it did not represent a significant element of postoperative pain when judged by these criteria.