effect of topical bupivacaine on post-tonsillectomy pain relief in children referred to ahvaz imam khomeini hospital in 2013

Background: tonsillectomy is a common pediatric surgery followed by a severe, sometimes debilitating, postoperative pain. many drugs can be used to control pain. objectives: this study aimed to investigate the effects of topical bupivacaine in controlling postoperative pain. patients and methods: this clinical trial was performed on 60 elective tonsillectomy patients in imam khomeini hospital, ahvaz, in 2013. the patients were randomly divided into two groups of a and b; group a received topical bupivacaine just before the operation, while group b received placebo (distilled water). the results were statistically analyzed using spss-19. results: patients aged 4 to 13 years. the amount of postoperative pain was obviously less in the bupivacaine group than the other group. the mean time of postoperative fluid intake was lower in group a (bupivacaine) than group b (placebo) (p < 0.001). the mean pain score at 24 hours after the operation was lower in the bupivacaine group than the placebo group (p < 0.001). conclusions: considering that tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgeries in children and produces a lot of pain, using a low risk medicine such as bupivacaine to recover child as soon as possible seems reasonable.