An Analysis of the Efficacy of Continuous Bupivacaine Infusion Pump (On-Q® Pump) in Bariatric Surgery Patients

Abstract

With an increasing obese population nationwide, there has been an increase in the number of laparoscopic surgeries performed. However, few studies have evaluated different methods to reduce pain in bariatric patients after laparoscopic surgery. Bupivacaine infusion pumps (On-Q® pumps) have shown efficacy in reducing postoperative pain in other surgical populations, such as orthopedic patients. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether infusion pain pumps improve postoperative pain control and decrease length of hospital stay in bariatric patients. Between January 2015 and August 2016, 125 charts were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into two groups: those who received infusion pain pumps and those who did not. The primary endpoints were hospital length of stay and the amount of postoperative narcotic use. Secondary endpoints included postoperative pain score, use of non-narcotics, and complications due to opioids or bupivacaine. There were 82 patients in the infusion pain pump group and 43 patients in the control group. Baseline characteristics were similar between both groups. There were no statistically significant differences in length of hospital stay (p = 0.39) or postoperative opioid use (p = 0.48) between the two groups. Although the median postoperative pain score was significantly reduced in the infusion pain pump group (3.5) compared to the control group (5) for the first 48 h (p = 0.002), this difference was not statistically significant for the first 24 h (p = 0.06). The use of infusion pain pumps did not significantly reduce the length of hospitalization and use of narcotics postoperatively.