Study Summary

Five randomized controlled trials containing 346 patients scheduled to undergo arthroscopy were included in this meta-analysis comparing administration of gabapentin (n=171) to placebo (n=175) for post-operative pain relief. The primary outcome of interest was pain measured at 6 and 24 hours post-surgery. Secondary outcomes of interest included analgesic consumption, incidence of dizziness, and incidence nausea and vomiting. Meta-analysis results revealed significantly favorable pooled pain scores at 24-hours in the gabapentin group vs placebo (p=0.005), but not at 6-hours (p=0.11). Pooled secondary outcomes except for incidence of dizziness (p=0.75) were significantly favored in the gabapentin group compared to placebo (p<0.05 for both).