Triamcinolone Acetonide as an Adjuvant to Pre-emptive Scalp Infiltration for Relief of Post-craniotomy Pain in Adults
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2023-12-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Pain is common for the first 2 days after major craniotomy. A majority of patients would
suffer from moderate-to-severe postoperative pain after undergoing craniotomy. Inadequate
analgesia induced sympathetically mediated hypertension may lead to an increased risk for
post-operative complications. Adequate pain control is essential for patients' prognosis and
their postoperative life quality. Pain after craniotomy derives from the scalp and
pericranial muscles. Local anesthetics administered around the incision have been performed
clinically. However, some studies revealed that the analgesic effect of local anesthetics was
not unsatisfactory due to its short pain relief duration. Pain is common for the first 2 days
after major elective intracranial surgery, and the relatively short analgesic time of scalp
infiltration does not seem to meet the requirements of craniotomy. Steroid such as
triamcinolone acetonide as an adjuvant to local anesthetics intra-articular injected locally
ameliorated pain intensity inarthroscopic knee surgery or total knee arthroplasty. However,
there has not been reported about local application of triamcinolone acetonide on scalp
infiltration. Thus, the investigators suppose that pre-emptive scalp infiltration with
steroid (triamcinolone acetonide) plus local anesthetic (ropivacaine) could relieve
postoperative pain after craniotomy in adults.