The use of gabapentin was found to be safe and effective in pain management following arthroscopic surgery, as concluded from a systematic review and meta-analysis issued in the Medicine journal.

To investigate the effect of gabapentin compared to placebo on postoperative pain, Feiri Huang et al. explored Embase, PubMed, EBSCO, Web of Science, and Cochrane library databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating gabapentin analgesic efficacy following arthroscopy. A random-effect model (variance components model) was used to perform this meta-analysis.

Thereafter, 5 RCTs were incorporated in the meta-analysis with a total of 346 patients. For arthroscopy, there was a marked decrease in pain scores at 24 hours (Standard mean difference [SMD]=-0.68), use of analgesics (SMD = -18.24), nausea and vomiting (Odds ratio [OR] = 0.42) as compared with the control group.

On the other hand, no evident influence was witnessed on pain scores at 6 hours (SMD = −1.30) or dizziness (OR = 1.12). Thus, gabapentin appears to be effective for pain alleviation following arthroscopy.