Perioperative magnesium infusion and postoperative pain.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Morphine in this randomized controlled trial publication.

NMDA receptor activation is considered one of the mechanisms involved in postoperative pain and hypersensitivity.

Magnesium is the physiological blocker of the NMDA-receptor-complex-associated calcium ionophore.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 24 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults and middle-aged adults, women only.

Postoperative analgesia was by PCA morphine for the first 48 h and patients were followed for 5 d with regular assessment of pain and side-effect scores.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Morphine group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind Morphine study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Morphine could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Analgesics, Opioid, Anesthesia, General, Hysterectomy, Levulinic Acids, Morphine, Pain Measurement and Postoperative Pain.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Morphine in 24 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 1997 (Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.