Liposomal Bupivacaine Suspension for Pain Control Following Ocular Evisceration Surgery

Abstract

Purpose: 

To determine the effectiveness of retrobulbar liposomal bupivacaine for controlling postoperative pain following evisceration, compared with 0.75% bupivacaine.

Methods: 

Randomized controlled trial, in which the postoperative pain scores from 24 patients who had retrobulbar liposomal bupivacaine after an evisceration were compared with the pain scores from 24 patients eviscerated using 0.75% bupivacaine.

Results: 

Patients who received liposomal bupivacaine reported significantly less pain at 24 hours (2.0 out of 10, p = 0.01) and 48 hours (2.2 out of 10, p = 0.01) after surgery than patients who received 0.75% bupivacaine (5.7, and 5.0, respectively). The postoperative pain scores at 1 hour and at 7 days did not significantly differ between the 2 groups. Significantly, fewer patients who received liposomal bupivacaine (0%) than patients who received 0.75% bupivacaine (16.7%) returned emergently during the postoperative period for uncontrolled pain (p ≤ 0.001).

Conclusions: 

Retrobulbar liposomal bupivacaine is more effective than 0.75% bupivacaine for controlling pain during the first 2 days after evisceration and should be considered for patients undergoing this procedure.

In Brief

Retrobulbar injection of liposomal bupivacaine is shown to be superior to 0.75% bupivacaine for postoperative pain control 24 and 48 hours after evisceration surgery.