A comparative study of preoperative versus intraoperative meperidine administration in patients receiving general anesthesia: a prospective, randomized double-blind study

Aim: To evaluate the effects of preoperative and intraoperative administration of intravenous meperidine as a preemptive analgesic. Materials and methods: A total of 50 patients were randomly divided into 2 groups; group P received 1 mg/kg of meperidine intravenously immediately before induction of anesthesia, and group I received the same amount of meperidine 20 min before completion of surgery. Consumption of desflurane, recovery parameters, heart rate, mean arterial pressure, sedation scores, visual analog scale (VAS) scores for pain, analgesic needs, and anesthesia-related complications were recorded for both groups. Results: Time to recovery was significantly shorter in group P than in group I for all parameters except spontaneous respiration. The postoperative sedation scores were mostly similar for the 2 groups, with the exception of the number of patients with postoperative 60-min sedation scores of 2; this score was seen in 1 patient in group P and 7 patients in group I. The VAS scores of group I in the postoperative period were higher than those of group P. Conclusion: Preoperative meperidine administration shows superiority to intraoperative administration with regard to recovery parameters and early postoperative pain scores, but there were no signifi cant differences between the groups with regard to other intraoperative and postoperative parameters.