Intravenous and subcutaneous tramadol for inguinal herniorrhaphy: comparative study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Inguinal herniorrhaphy is one of the most common surgeries in men. Neuroaxis block is the anesthetic technique used more often and in the majority of the cases the patient is ready to be discharged from the hospital a few hours after the procedure, as long as satisfactory analgesia is present and nausea and vomiting are absent. Tramadol is an analgesic drug that can be used in postoperative analgesia, but it has important side effects, such as nausea and vomiting whose incidence can range from 0% to 50%. The objective of the present study was to compare the incidence of nausea and vomiting and the quality of postoperative analgesia of subcutaneous and intravenous tramadol in patients undergoing inguinal herniorrhaphy. METHODS This is a prospective study with 30 patients undergoing inguinal herniorrhaphy. Patients were divided into two groups: Group C (n = 15) received 1.5 mg.kg⁻¹ of subcutaneous Tramadol, and Group V (n = 15) received 1.5 mg.kg⁻¹ of intravenous Tramadol. All patients underwent continuous epidural anesthesia with 0.5% levobupivacaine. Anthropometric data, quality of analgesia, and the development of postoperative nausea and vomiting in the first eight hours were recorded. RESULTS Statistically significant differences were not observed between both groups for anthropometric data, quality of analgesia, and the development of nausea and vomiting. CONCLUSIONS The present study demonstrates the absence of statistically significant differences regarding the incidence of nausea and vomiting and quality of analgesia when using intravenous and subcutaneous Tramadol.