The local addition of tenoxicam reduces the incidence of low back pain after lumbar epidural anesthesia.

BACKGROUND

Postepidural backache is a common postoperative complaint after lumbar epidural anesthesia. Useful interventions to decrease the incidence of postepidural backache would be helpful.

METHODS

We performed a prospective, randomized, double-blind study to compare the effect of local addition of tenoxicam on the incidence of postepidural backache after nonobstetric surgery. One thousand unpremedicated ASA physical status I or II patients scheduled for hemorrhoidectomy were assigned randomly to tenoxicam or control groups. Patients in the control group received 25 ml lidocaine, 2%, with epinephrine 1:200,000 epidurally and 4 ml lidocaine, 1%, for local skin infiltration. Patients in the tenoxicam group received 25 ml lidocaine, 2%, with epinephrine 1:200,000 epidurally and 4 ml lidocaine, 1%, with tenoxicam (2 mg) 1:2,000 for local skin infiltration. Patients were interviewed at 24, 48, and 72 h postoperatively using a standard visual analog scale for evaluation of postepidural backache. A patient was considered to have postepidural backache when the postoperative visual analog scale score was higher than the preoperative score.

RESULTS

The incidence of postepidural backache in patients in the control group for the 3 days were 22.8%, 17.4%, and 9.2%, all of which were significantly more frequent than observed in the patients in the tenoxicam group (6.8%, 4.0%, and 1.2%, P < 0.01). There was a significant association between backache and multiple attempts at epidural needle insertion.

CONCLUSION

In summary, the local addition of tenoxicam reduced the incidence and severity of postepidural backache.