Nalbuphine Use for Postoperative Pain in Bariatric Surgery: Case Series and Rationale

Obesity became an epidemic condition worldwide with a significant impact in healthcare and surgical interventions emerged as a treatment for it. Due to their health conditions, obese population are at higher risk of presenting opioids adverse effects. The goal of this study is to assess the potential use of nalbuphine on bariatric surgery according to its beneficial effect as an agonist-antagonist opioid. A total of 93 medical records of consecutive patients were selected retrospectively at Santa Casa de Porto Alegre Hospital from January 2018 to January 2019. Patients were overall women, middle-aged, with obesity grade 3 and with stable comorbidities. Sleeve gastrectomy was the main surgery technique by laparoscopic approach. Anesthesia used was essentially TIVA, with Dipyrone and NSAIDS as the main adjuvants associated. The time to the first requirement of nalbuphine (TFRN) and total dose of nalbuphine in 24h (TDN24) had medians of 80 minutes and 20mg, respectively. Respiratory depression, urinary retention and pruritus were not found in any patients. The only data statistically significant was sex related TDN24, with men using almost twice larger median doses than women. The analgesic properties and adverse effects profile look encouraging in this setting. The female prevalence is a relevant information considering the influence of gender in nalbuphine efficacy. We can see the agreement with this concept observing that the only statistically significant difference in all study was the total dose of nalbuphine in the first 24h postoperative, favoring females.