International Journal of Contemporary Surgery

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy although causing lesser post-operative pain than conventional open cholecystectomy, still causes significant postoperative pain requiring frequent analgesics. In continuous endeavour to make post-operative period completely painless various strategies have been used in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Intra-peritoneal instillation of long acting local anaesthetic agent is one of them.

To compare the post-operative analgesic effect of 0.5% Bupivacaine and normal saline following intra-peritoneal instillation in laparoscopic cholecystectomy and to assess the need of rescue analgesics in post- operative period in both groups & observe the side effect.

60 adult Patients (30 in each group) undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy from May 2013 to May 2014 in the department of General surgery, Santosh medical college & hospital were randomized into Group A (Bupivacaine) and Group B (Normal saline). Postoperative pain for initial 24 hours was assessed using VAS (visual analogue scale). Time of need for 1^st rescue analgesic & total number of analgesic doses in both groups were also noted.

The age and sex distribution of both groups were similar. The mean VAS in both groups varied considerably between the groups, being significantly comparatively lower in Group A as compared to B. Time to need for 1st rescue analgesic was significantly shorter in group A than group B.

Intra-peritoneal instillation of local anaesthetic is an easy, cheap, and non-invasive method which provides good analgesia in the immediate postoperative period after laparoscopic surgery.