Analgesia Regimens Following Trans-sphenoidal Surgery for Pituitary Tumors

Post-operative pain control is a common concern patients have when they consider undergoing a surgical procedure. Although effective for treating acute pain, opioid analgesics are also associated with dose-dependent adverse effects, including constipation, nausea and vomiting, altered mental status, and respiratory depression, all of which have been shown to increase patient length of stay. The use of non-opioid analgesics with different mechanisms of actions for acute pain control via a multi-modal approach is efficacious in reducing opioid consumption, decreasing the incidence of adverse effects, improving patient satisfaction and recovery time, and decreasing hospital costs.Certain minimally invasive procedures may afford many patients the opportunity to achieve adequate post-operative pain control with minimal to no requirement of opioid analgesics, thereby sparing the patient known adverse effects that can increase length of stay and costs. The ENTS approach for resection of pituitary tumors is the standard surgical procedure for these lesions, and is associated with pain that is more easily managed post-operatively, making it an ideal procedure for an opioid-sparing post-operative pain regimen. Anecdotally, the investigators note that in the investigator's post-operative pituitary patient population that post-operative pain can frequently be adequately managed with scheduled non-opioid analgesics, often without requiring breakthrough opioid doses. Another safe and effective non-opioid analgesic that is widely used in multi-modal pain management for moderate pain is IV Caldolor (ibuprofen). After literature review, the investigators were unable to find a study that had attempted to use an opioid-sparing analgesic regimen for post-operative pain control following ENTS approach for resection of pituitary tumors.