title: Transdermal Buprenorphine Patches for Postoperative Pain Control in Abdominal Surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Buprenorphine is a semi-synthetic derivative of thebaine; its low concentration is sufficient to provide effective pain relief.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficacy of transdermal buprenorphine patch in postoperative pain management.
  
  
  METHODS
  After ethical approval and taking informed consent from the patients, they were randomized into three groups (n=30 in each group) using a computer generated random number table. Group A: placebo patch; Group B: buprenorphine (10mg) patch and Group C: buprenorphine (20mg) patch. Haemodynamic and analgesic effects were compared by using analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Turkey's post hoc test. The proportion of side effects was compared using the Chi-square test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Haemodynamic changes were not statistically different in all the three groups A, B and C, whereas at the end of surgery VAS score of Group A subjects was significantly higher (4.93±0.98) as compared to Group B (1.73±0.64) and Group C (1.40±0.50). On 2(nd) postoperative day, no pain was reported by the Group C patients and on 4(th) day after surgery, no pain was reported by Group B patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The transdermal buprenorphine patch (20mg) was effective in attenuating postoperative pain, maintaining haemodynamic stability requiring no rescue analgesia, with fewer postoperative rescue analgesic requirements in low dose of buprenorphine patch (10mg) group.
authors: Resident, Department of Anaesthesiology, King George's Medical University , U.P., Lucknow, India .
authors: Santosh
authors: S
authors: Kumar
authors: Associate Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, King George's Medical University , U.P., Lucknow, India .
authors: Ajay Kumar
authors: AK
authors: Chaudhary
authors: Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Anaesthesiology, King George's Medical University , U.P., Lucknow, India .
authors: Prithvi Kumar
authors: PK
authors: Singh
authors: Associate Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, King George's Medical University , U.P., Lucknow, India .
authors: Reetu
authors: R
authors: Verma
authors: Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, King George's Medical University , U.P., Lucknow, India .
authors: Girish
authors: G
authors: Chandra
authors: Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, King George's Medical University , U.P., Lucknow, India .
authors: Vinod Kumar
authors: VK
authors: Bhatia
authors: Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, King George's Medical University , U.P., Lucknow, India .
authors: Dinesh
authors: D
authors: Singh
authors: Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, King George's Medical University , U.P., Lucknow, India .
authors: Jaishri
authors: J
authors: Bogra
keywords: Analgesia; Haemodynamic; Patch; Transdermal delivery system