Objective: Reducing postoperative pain following breast surgery is crucial for rapid recovery and shortening hospital stay. Ketorolac, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, has been used as a postoperative analgesic in many surgical procedures. We conducted a systemic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of locally administered ketorolac-based analgesics in managing pain after breast surgery.
Methods: We searched the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and ClinicalTrials.gov registry for randomized control trials (RCTs) published up to September 2016. The primary outcome was pain level assessed using a visual analog scale (VAS) at 1 and 6 hours following breast surgery.
Results: We reviewed 4 RCTs with 255 patients. For meta-analysis, VAS at 1 and 6 hours of 3 similar RCTs were compared. At 1 hour, VAS scores were significantly lower in patients administered a ketorolac solution [weighted mean difference (WMD)=-2.04; 95% confidence interval (CI): -3.08 to -1.00] or ketorolac-bupivacaine solution (WMD=-2.30; 95% CI, -4.07 to -0.54) than in controls. At 6 hours, the ketorolac-bupivacaine solution reduced VAS scores significantly (WMD=-1.40; 95% CI, -2.48 to -0.32) compared with controls. However, at 1 hour, the ketorolac solution was significantly more effective than the bupivacaine solution was (WMD=-1.70; 95% CI, -2.81 to -0.59).
Discussion: The effects of ketorolac-based analgesics vary as per the surgery and disease type. Locally administered ketorolac-based analgesics decreased postoperative pain in breast surgery patients, and the effect of local ketorolac was better than local bupivacaine. Therefore, ketorolac-based analgesics demonstrate considerable local infiltration during pain management after breast surgery.