Impact of Intraperitonael Nebulization of Local Anesthetic on Postoperative Pain Associated With Laparoscopic Surgery

Studies evaluating intraperitoneal local anesthetic (LA) instillation for pain relief after laparoscopic surgery have provided conflicting results. One of the factors that might contribute to failure of the instillation technique may be related to inadequate distribution of local anesthetic throughout the peritoneal surface. In contrast, nebulization should provide a uniform spread of drugs throughout the peritoneal cavity and thus may be beneficial to improve pain relief after laparoscopic procedures. The investigators reported that a microvibration-based nebulization device (Aeroneb Pro® system, Aerogen, Galway, Ireland) could be used for ropivacaine delivery into the insufflation gas required to create pneumorpeitoneum. The investigators hypothesized that intraperitoneal ropivacaine nebulization would provide superior pain relief than ropivacaine instillation after gynecologic laparoscopic surgery. This randomized, double blind, controlled clinical trial was designed to assess the analgesic efficacy of ropivacaine nebulization before or after surgery compared with intraperitoneal ropivacaine instillation and placebo after gynecologic laparoscopic procedures.