Background:

Preventive analgesia is the administration of an analgesic drug with the aim of attenuating post-operative pain, hyperalgesia and allodynia. Its use is justified in order to offer analgesia and reduce anxiety in patients undergoing laparoscopic procedures.

Objective:

To evaluate if pregabalin in a dose of 1 mg/kg of weight is effective as preventive analgesia in post-operated laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients.

Methods:

A single-blind controlled clinical trial was conducted, which included 60 patients scheduled for laparoscopic cholecystectomy randomly divided into 2 groups, where Group 1 received placebo and Group 2 received pregabalin a daily dose 72 h prior to surgical intervention. The intensity of pain was assessed using the emergency nurses association scale at 2, 6, 12 and 24 post-operative h, as well as the level of presurgical anxiety with the Hamilton scale.

Results:

Pain reduction was demonstrated in patients in the pregabalin group from the 1st h (p = 0.002), later the decrease in pain was more noticeable compared to patients who were given placebo (p < 0.001), the same happened with the anxiety level evaluated with the Hamilton scale (p < 0.005).

Conclusion:

The use of pregabalin as preventive analgesia turns out to be effective in the post-operative period and the pre-operative anxiety with minimal adverse effects in the post-operated patients of laparoscopic cholecystectomy.