Liposome bupivacaine for postsurgical pain in an obese woman with chronic pain undergoing laparoscopic gastrectomy: a case report

INTRODUCTION To reduce incidence and severity of postsurgical pain and minimize the effect of its clinical and economic correlates, multimodal therapy for surgical patients is recommended. In this report, we discuss the use of liposome bupivacaine, a novel multivesicular formulation of bupivacaine indicated for single-dose infiltration into the surgical site to produce postsurgical analgesia, as part of a multimodal analgesic regimen in a patient with a history of chronic pain scheduled to undergo laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published report of liposome bupivacaine in the setting of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. CASE PRESENTATION A 35-year-old white woman with morbid obesity was admitted for laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy to lose weight prior to hip replacement surgery. Because of a complicated medical history that included rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and chronic pain, for which she was receiving high doses of opioid analgesics, postsurgical pain management was a concern and she was considered a candidate for multimodal analgesia. At initiation of surgery, 50mL of lidocaine and epinephrine was infiltrated around the port sites. At the conclusion, 25mL of normal sterile saline was added to a 20mL vial of liposome bupivacaine (266mg) and injected around the port sites and at the site of liver retraction. Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy was successfully completed. Our patient was discharged to the postanesthesia care unit for approximately four hours before discharge to the surgical floor with a pain score of 5 (11-point scale; 0 = no pain, 10 = worst possible pain). Her postoperative course was uneventful; no adverse events were recorded during surgery or during the remainder of her hospital stay. Our patient was discharged on the same opioid regimen used previously for control of her preexisting chronic pain. CONCLUSIONS Liposome bupivacaine use in this morbidly obese patient undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy provided analgesic efficacy and limited postsurgical opioids to a level comparable with her baseline opioid regimen for chronic pain. Given her complex medical history and previous issues with acute and chronic pain, we consider these results highly successful and continue to use liposome bupivacaine as part of a multimodal analgesic regimen in an effort to optimize postsurgical pain management.