Intravenous Lidocaine Infusion in the Management of Post-operative Pain in Colorectal Patients

Lidocaine is an amide local anesthetic that has analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Lidocaine infusion is a very useful pain medication that is underutilized to treat surgical, chronic, and cancer pain in children. The investigators propose to examine the perioperative use of lidocaine infusion in children undergoing colorectal surgery that involves an abdominal incision. The investigators plan to measure the following outcomes: length of stay in hospital following abdominal surgery, postoperative pain scores, cumulative morphine consumption, incidences of opioid adverse-effects: respiratory depression, sedation, nausea, vomiting, time to passage of flatus, time to first bowel movement and end-tidal Sevoflurane in operating room throughout surgery. The following laboratory values will be measured: serial lidocaine levels of pharmacokinetics and safety levels, Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine measurements: IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-1RA and genetic variants.