As per the findings of a single-center, prospective, randomized clinical trial, preemptive intravenous administration of ibuprofen at induction exhibited a substantial opioid sparing effect in the early postsurgery period without any profound side effects in infants (aged 9-24 months) with isolated cleft palate. Researchers aimed to investigate if preoperative ibuprofen can lower opioid needs after cleft palate repair in infants.

The study enrolled 40 infants having cleft palate and undergoing palatoplasty. Participants were randomly allocated to get either a 10 mg/kg ibuprofen intravenously (n=20) or normal saline (n=20) at induction. for pain assessment. For evaluating pain, the Children and infants postoperative pain scale (CHIPPS) was utilized. Those infants whose CHIPPS pain scores were equal or greater than 4 were given analgesic rescue with titrating intravenous 0.5 μg/kg fentanyl and repeated in ten minutes if needed.

The amount of postoperative fentanyl utilized for rescue analgesia in the postanesthesia care unit was the major endpoint of this research. Compared to the placebo group, the ibuprofen group demonstrated a reduced need for postoperative fentanyl. Regarding surgical blood loss and first rescue analgesia time, no profound differences were noted between the two groups.

In both ibuprofen and the normal saline group, no occurrence of obvious adverse events were reported within the initial 24 hours after surgery. Ibuprofen injection appears to be an effective adjunct to fentanyl to manage postsurgery acute pain and can be considered as the first-line medicine for palatoplasty pain therapy regimen.