Opioid Free Anesthesia and Major Spine Surgery

Opioid analgesics are commonly used in clinical practice for per and postoperative pain treatment. However their use is associated with a lot of undesirable effects. From this comes the idea of using opioid free anesthesia intra-operatively in an attempt to decrease opioids postoperative use and accordingly, their associated side effects. Intravenous (IV) lidocaine has been found to have analgesic, antihyperalgesic, and anti-inflammatory properties. It was found to significantly improve postoperative pain, when its intraoperative use was compared with placebo . Dexmedetomidine is a selective alpha-two adrenergic receptor agonist that has antinociceptive, analgesic, opioid sparing and sedative properties. Similar to lidocaine, dexmedetomidine was shown to lower postoperative pain, opioid consumption and accordingly, opioid related side effects.