Surgery on the liver can be incredibly painful, especially when patients need to move. To manage this, doctors are looking for ways to reduce both the intensity of the pain and the amount of heavy-duty pain medication, known as opioids, that patients need to take.
A study of 304 patients undergoing liver surgery found that a specific mix of lidocaine and esketamine helped manage pain. Patients receiving this combination reported lower levels of pain triggered by movement at the 24, 48, and 72-hour marks after surgery. They also used significantly less sufentanil, a type of opioid, and reported a better quality of recovery during those first three days.
While the results show the treatment works, the researchers noted that the actual improvements were modest. This means that while the combination is effective at reducing pain and lowering opioid use, the difference in how patients felt might be small in some cases. Because the study is still early in its evaluation of clinical importance, talk to your doctor about how these findings might apply to your specific care.
