Pregabalin for Post-craniotomy Pain Control

Background: Proper pain relief is a major concern of patients worldwide. Preoperatively, one of the most common questions asked by patients pertains to the amount of pain they will experience after surgery how long it will last and how good will it be controlled. Pain concerns the surgical team as well, because of its correlation with clinical outcomes and patients' satisfaction rate. Studies have shown that negative clinical outcome with regard to pain control includes decreases in vital capacity and alveolar ventilation, pneumonia, tachycardia, hypertension, myocardial ischemia, transition into chronic pain, poor wound healing, and psychological sequelae . Pain has been found to be one of the three most common medical causes of delayed/aborted discharge after ambulatory surgery, the other two being drowsiness and postoperative nausea/vomiting. Despite progress that has been made with regard to postoperative pain control, and the development of new standards for pain control, many patients continue to experience intense pain after surgery . Recent advances in the understanding of the particularities of central sensitization indicate that it plays an important role in post surgical and post traumatic pain and therefore should be avoided