Introduction:

Pain is a symptom as old as humanity itself and has been an inseparable part of it.

Objective:

To evaluate the effectiveness of preventive analgesia with diclofenac for postoperative pain in elective paediatric general surgery.

Methods:

A prospective, quasi-experimental study was carried out with 230 children who underwent elective general surgery. The sample was divided into two groups: preventive analgesia with diclofenac (study group) versus dipyrone by the rectal way (control group). The variables analyzed were pain intensity, hemodynamic modifications, clinical evolution and adverse events.

Results:

In both groups, patients aged 6-10 years of age prevailed. In the study group, pain onset occurred at 6 hours after surgery, in only 23 patients; not being that way in the control group, in which, at 4 hours, 19 patients reported pain. In the study group, the 23 patients had approximately 2 hours of pain duration and, among them, only 4 hours with severe intensity; while in the control group, 65 patients reported 2 hours of pain and the rest referred it for 4 hours despite the analgesic rescue. Nine of them presented severe intensity. Some patients presented changes in blood pressure, heart rate and breathing associated with pain. The frequent adverse effects include nausea and vomiting.

Conclusions:

The preventive administration of diclofenac decreases the intensity of posoperative pain in surgical procedures of elective paediatric general surgery.

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