Comparison of Analgesic Effects between Nalbuphine and Sufentanil in First-Trimester Surgical Abortion: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled Trial

Abstract

Introduction: Surgical abortion is one of the commonly conducted procedures worldwide. Nevertheless, pregnant women still complain of procedural and postoperative pain despite the use of advanced anesthesia. It is vital to women’s reproductive healthcare to improve postsurgical pain management to achieve the lowest level of pain. Methods: This randomized, double-blind, parallel-controlled clinical trial compared the analgesic effects between nalbuphine and sufentanil in patients who underwent first-trimester surgical abortion. In total, 224 patients were allocated randomly into (a) the sufentanil group that received sufentanil (0.1 ug/kg) combined propofol, and (b) the nalbuphine group that received nalbuphine (0.1 mg/kg) combined propofol. Postoperative pain scores, propofol injection pain, intraoperative analgesic effect, adverse events, and degree of satisfaction were recorded as outcome measures. Results: The pain scores in the nalbuphine group were lower than those in the sufentanil group at 15 min, 30 min, 1 h, and 6 h after surgical abortion. In addition, the incidence and intensity of propofol injection pain were lower in the nalbuphine group. The degree of satisfaction of the patients in the nalbuphine group was higher than that in the sufentanil group. The intraoperative analgesic effect, hemodynamic fluctuation, and adverse events were comparable between the two groups. Conclusions: Nalbuphine combined with propofol is superior to sufentanil combined with propofol for first-trimester abortion surgeries. Clinical Trial Registration: The trial was registered at www.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2000040243.