Magnesium sulfate reduces intra- and postoperative analgesic requirements.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Magnesium Sulfate and Fentanyl.

In a randomized, double-blind study with two parallel groups, the researchers assessed the analgesic effect of perioperative magnesium sulfate administration in 46 ASA physical status I or II patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery with total i.v. anesthesia.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel-group study.

Because people in this Magnesium Sulfate study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Magnesium Sulfate.

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

The Magnesium Sulfate group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

What Was Measured

In a randomized, double-blind study with two parallel groups, the researchers assessed the analgesic effect of perioperative magnesium sulfate administration in 46 ASA physical status I or II patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery with total i.v. anesthesia.

The subject headings attached to it are Analgesics, Analgesics, Opioid, Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee, Blood Pressure, Fentanyl, Heart Rate and Intraoperative Care.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Magnesium Sulfate and Fentanyl.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 2 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 1998 (Anesthesia and analgesia), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.