Peritonsillar Ropivacaine Infiltration in Paediatric Tonsillectomy: A Randomised Control Trial

Introduction: Various efforts have been made to reduce post tonsillectomy pain in children. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Ropivacaine in post-operative pain management in these children. Materials and Methods: This study is a Randomized control study on 140 patients between 4 - 12 years of age, in whom tonsillectomy was performed in a tertiary care centre between January 2017 to November 2018 using standard dissection and snare surgical technique. Postoperatively, patients were randomized into 2 groups of 70 patients each, receiving tonsillar fossa infiltration with 0.2% Ropivacaine or 0.9% normal saline respectively. Patients were assessed as per Wong Baker’s Faces Scoring System at 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, 18 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours postoperatively.  All the results were analyzed by SPSS software. Chi- square test and Mann-Whitney test were used for assessment of level of significance, with P- value of less than 0.05 taken as significant.    Results: Both the groups were comparable with respect to age and sex. At 48 hours, in study group, maximum number of patients 35 (50%) had Wong Baker score 0, while in control group, maximum number of patients 52 (74.3%) had Wong Baker score 4 (P< 0.01). The difference in the mean Deglutition time between both groups was significant (P< 0.01). Conclusion: Ropivacaine infiltration is a effective modality for post-tonsillectomy pain management in children, with minimal side-effects.