In people undergoing abdominal hysterectomy, intraperitoneal instillation of lidocaine is safe, feasible, cheap, and is associated with effective analgesia in terms of decreased postsurgery pain scores and morphine intake.

A study was carried out to explore the pain-relieving advantages of lidocaine infiltration for abdominal hysterectomy.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials, an inspection of 5 electronic databases was done (from inception up to 5 August 2021). Evaluation of the eligible randomized trials was done for the risk of biasness. The pooled outcomes were summarized as mean difference (MD) or risk ratio (RR).

Overall, 5 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) fulfilled the inclusion criteria comprising 263 participants (119 and 117 people were assigned to lidocaine group and control group, respectively). The incorporated RCTs showed a low risk of bias. The postsurgery pain scores at rest were considerably reduced in favor of the lidocaine group (MD=-1.01), and subgroup assessment showed the same at two, four, eight, 12, 24, and 48 hours after surgery.

Furthermore, the postsurgery pain scores at moving were considerably reduced in favor of the lidocaine group (MD=-0.67), and subgroup assessment showed the same at two and 48 hours after surgery. The postsurgery morphine intake during 0-24 hours (n = 5 RCTs, MD=-7.29 mg) and the rate of postsurgery vomiting (n = 4 RCTs, RR=0.54) was remarkably reduced in favor of the lidocaine group.

Lidocaine administered via the intraperitoneal route offers remarkable pain-relieving benefits in patients undergoing abdominal hysterectomy.