preemptive pain management with oral oxycodone and meloxicam in adult tonsillectomy

Background: tonsillectomy is a common surgery that can cause postoperative pain. preemptive analgesia, given before surgery, aims to block pain signals. opioids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsaids), like meloxicam, are often used for pain management, though opioids may have undesirable side effects. this study compared the effectiveness of oral oxycodone and meloxicam in providing preemptive pain control following tonsillectomy in adults.materials and methods: this three-arm, double-blind, randomized clinical trial was conducted at bu-ali sina hospital, iran. seventy adult participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: oxycodone or meloxicam. both medications were administered 60 minutes before surgery. postoperative care included standard monitoring, ondansetron, and intravenous acetaminophen. the primary outcome was postoperative pain occurrence, while secondary outcomes assessed pain intensity using the numeric rating scale (nrs) and analgesic consumption. data analysis was conducted using spss software, version 25.results: of 70 participants, 67 completed the study. adverse effects, including stomachache, headache, and nausea, were similar between the meloxicam and oxycodone groups. pain intensity assessments revealed no significant differences at 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 6 hours, or 24 hours post-surgery, but after 12 hours, the oxycodone group experienced lower pain intensity (mean=2.62) compared to the meloxicam group (mean=3.5), indicating better preemptive pain control with oxycodone.conclusion: oxycodone provides superior preemptive pain control compared to meloxicam after tonsillectomy in adults. further studies are needed to optimize preemptive analgesia strategies.