Analgesic efficacy and clinical acceptability of adjunct pre-emptive intravenous tramadol in midazolam sedation for third molar surgery.

INTRODUCTION

This study aims to compare two routine procedures of sedation, with and without intravenous adjunct analgesia, in third molar surgery regarding postoperative pain and consumption of analgesics.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

In a randomized, controlled, single-blinded procedure, 87 men and women aged 18-44 years were divided into two treatment groups, midazolam + tramadol (M + T) and midazolam + saline (M + S), and one control group (C), with no additional medication. After removal of a third lower molar, patients recorded postoperative pain on a visual analog scale (VAS) and consumption of analgesics during the first day after surgery.

RESULTS

Time from the end of operation until first rescue pill (400 mg Ibuprofen tablet) differed significantly between the M + S group (193 min) and the C group (110 min) (p = 0.001) as well as the M + T group (157 min) and the C group (p = 0.049). The study did not show any significant reduction of postoperative pain, VAS, after third molar surgery in patients who received adjunct pre-emptive intravenous administration of 1 mg/kg tramadol under midazolam sedation.

DISCUSSION AND

CONCLUSION

The lack of significant difference between the study and placebo groups indicates that tramadol at 1 mg/kg might be an insufficient dose, though the suitability for tramadol in oral and maxillofacial surgery has already been settled in other studies.