Summary Objective:

The present study aimed to investigate the analgesic effect and safety of using local incision analgesia to treat acute postoperative pain in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Method:

A cohort of 60 patients undergoing liver cancer resection was randomly divided into three groups (n=20 per group): local incision analgesia (LIA) group, which received local infiltration with ropivacaine combined with a postoperative analgesia pump; intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) group, which received fentanyl intravenous analgesia postoperatively; and the control group, which received tramadol hydrochloride injection postoperatively according to the NRS scoring system. The postoperative analgesic effect in each group was compared and tumor recurrence (survival) was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results:

NRS scores, rate of analgesic usage, ambulation time (h) and intestinal function recovery time (h) were significantly reduced in LIA group compared with the control group at each postoperative time point (6, 12, 24 and 48 hours; p<0.05). Additionally, the NRS scores of LIA patients at 12 hours post-surgery was significantly reduced compared with PCA group (p<0.05), and the occurrence of postoperative adverse events in LIA group was significantly lower than that in PCA group (p<0.05). Survival analysis demonstrated that the mean survival time (tumor recurrence) was significantly increased in LIA group compared with the control group (χ2=4.749; p=0.029).

Conclusion:

Local incision analgesia improves the analgesic effect, causes fewer adverse reactions and increases postoperative survival time. Our study demonstrated that local incision analgesia is a safe and effective method of postoperative pain management following hepatectomy.