Background: Gabapentin was used as an antiepileptic, later in the treatment of neuropathic pain. Now increasingly used for preemptive analgesia. Paracetamol was originally used as breakthrough analgesic, now has shown its potency in preemptive analgesia. In our study we have compared the preemptive analgesic efficacy of gabapentin with that of paracetamol in surgical patients.

Study objective: To compare the analgesic efficacy, post operative rescue analgesic consumption and post operative adverse effects between oral gabapentin and oral paracetamol given preoperatively to patients undergoing elective surgery under general anaesthesia.

Design: A prospective randomized control study

Material and methods: 60 patients belonging to ASA physical status I and II of both sexes undergoing elective surgery under general anaesthesia were randomized into two groups 1 and 2. Group 1 received oral gabapentin 600mg one hour prior to surgery, group 2 received 650 mg of oral paracetamol one hour prior to surgery. Post operative analgesia, rescue analgesia consumption, adverse effects were compared in both groups.

Results: Both groups 1 ( paracetamol) and 2 ( gabapentin) showed comparable duration of analgesia ( p value - 0.441) and rescue analgesic consumption ( p value - 0.627). Following drug administration side effects like nausea, vomiting, dizziness and headache were also comparable between the two groups.

Conclusion: Our study shows that both gabapentin and paracetamol has comparable efficacy as preemptive analgesic.