Efficacy of 10% sucralfate ointment in the reduction of acute postoperative pain after open hemorrhoidectomy: a prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Shahram Ala, Majid Saeedi, Fariborz Eshghi, Mohamadreza Rafati, Vahid Hejazi, Roja Hadianamrei

Index: World J. Surg. 37(1) , 233-8, (2013)

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of 10 % sucralfate ointment in the reduction of acute postoperative pain after open hemorrhoidectomy.A total of 48 patients (24 men and 24 women) between 20 and 70 years of age who underwent open hemorrhoidectomy were included in this prospective, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial and were randomly divided into two groups (24 in each group), receiving either sucralfate ointment or placebo immediately after surgery and then every 12 h for 14 days. The primary outcome measure was pain intensity measured by a visual analogue scale at different time points after hemorrhoidectomy.The sucralfate group had significantly less pain than the placebo group at 24th h and the 48th h after hemorrhoidectomy (4 ± 1.14 vs 5.08 ± 0.97; P = 0.001 and 3 ± 0.72 vs 4.41 ± 0.8; P < 0.001, respectively), and they consumed lower amounts of analgesics at the same time intervals (12.50 ± 16.48 vs 21.87 ± 15.30 mg of pethidine; P = 0.047 and 152 ± 23 vs 172 ± 29 mg of diclofenac; P = 0.009, respectively). The same trend continued until the end of the trial.Sucralfate ointment reduced the acute postoperative pain after hemorrhoidectomy.