Trial reportMedicine2019
Fentanyl-based intravenous patient-controlled analgesia with low dose of ketamine is not inferior to thoracic epidural analgesia for acute post-thoracotomy pain following video-assisted thoracic surgery: A randomized controlled study.
Trial report in Medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- PROSPECT guidelines for video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery: a systematic review and procedure-specific postoperative pain management recommendations.Anaesthesia · 2022Pooled it
- Periprocedural pain management in pleural disease: a narrative review of current and emerging strategies.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Review
- Personalized Multimodal and Opioid-Sparing Analgesia for Postoperative Pain Management: Enhancing Recovery and Addressing the Post-Discharge Gap.Journal of pain research · 2026Review
- Evidence summary on pain management in thoracoscopic lung cancer surgery.Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing · 2025Review
- Article
- Risk factors for discontinuation of intravenous patient-controlled analgesia after general surgery: a retrospective cohort study.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Do we still need thoracic epidural analgesia in minimally invasive lung surgery?Journal of thoracic disease · 2022Article
- Assessment of the Operative Feasibility and Ventilation Distribution during Nonintubation Thoracoscopic Surgery Using Electrical Impedance Tomography.Journal of personalized medicine · 2022Article
- Regional anesthesia and acute perioperative pain management in thoracic surgery: a narrative review.Journal of thoracic disease · 2022Review
- Anesthesia for minimally invasive cardiac surgery: is it still a place for opioids?Journal of thoracic disease · 2021Article
- Ketamine Use in the Surgical Patient: a Literature Review.Current pain and headache reports · 2021Review
- The Effect of Ultrasound-Guided Erector Spinae Plane Block versus Thoracic Epidural Block on Postoperative Analgesia After Nuss Surgery in Paediatric Patients: Study Protocol of a Randomized Non-Inferiority Design Trial.Journal of pain research · 2021Article
- Low-Dose Ketamine Infusion Versus Morphine Infusion During Abdominoplasty to Change the Postoperative Pain Profile.Anesthesiology and pain medicine · 2020Article
- Impact of surgical technique and analgesia on clinical outcomes after lung transplantation: A STROBE-compliant cohort study.Medicine · 2020Article
- Paravertebral Block Versus Preemptive Ketamine Effect on Pain Intensity after Posterolateral Thoracotomies: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Article
- Post-thoracotomy analgesia.Saudi journal of anaesthesiaReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThoracic epidural analgesia is the preferred method for postoperative analgesia following thoracic surgery. However, intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IVPCA) may be an effective alternative. This study was conducted because few scientific reports exist comparing fentanyl-based IVPCA including a low dose of ketamine (fk-IVPCA) with thoracic patient-controlled epidural analgesia (t-PCEA) for the treatment of postoperative pain after video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS).
methodsThis prospective, and randomized study included 70 patients randomized into fk-IVPCA and t-PCEA groups. Pain at rest and during movement, successful and unsuccessful triggers after pressing the PCA device button, the need for rescue analgesia, drug-related adverse events, and patient satisfaction were recorded for 48 hours postoperatively.
resultsNo significant differences in the intensity of pain at rest or during movement were observed between the 2 groups within 48 hours postoperatively. The number of unsuccessful PCA triggers in the t-PCEA group 0 to 4 hours after surgery was significantly higher than that in the fk-IVPCA group. However, the numbers of successful PCA triggers in the fk-IVPCA group at 4 to 12 and 0 to 24 hours after surgery were significantly higher than those in the t-PCEA group. The incidence of analgesic-related side effects and patient satisfaction were similar in both groups.
conclusionsCompared with t-PCEA, the addition of a subanesthetic dose of ketamine to fentanyl-based IVPCA resulted in similar pain control after VATS with no increase in the incidence of drug-related adverse effects. The results confirm that both multimodal intravenous analgesia and epidural analgesia can provide sufficient pain control and are safe strategies for treating acute post-thoracotomy pain.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.