Nausea and Pain Prophylaxis During Thyroid Surgery
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2008-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Postoperative pain and nausea may diminish a patient's wellbeing, and may also delay
rehabilitation, as well as increase the total cost of care and treatment. Opioids are
effective drugs for treatment of pain, but with the disadvantage of side effects such as
somnolence and nausea. The benefits of various types of non-opioid analgesic in reducing
patients' postoperative need for opioids have been well-documented.
One non-opioid prophylaxis documented for various surgery is short-term treatment with
corticosteroids. The optimal dose of corticosteroids for peroperative nausea and pain
prophylaxis is not well-documented. In our study we will attempt to determine whether the
aforementioned benefits of corticosteroids are valid for a group of patients undergoing
thyroid surgery.
Hypothesis: Single-dose treatment with dexamethasone provides a better analgesic effect
and/or reduced use of opioids than placebo in patients undergoing elective throid surgery.
Higher dose of dexamethasone provide better and/or longer-lasting analgesic effects without
influencing the side effect profile.