Abstract
Introduction: Magnesium sulfate is a well-known analgesic, acting by antagonizing N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the central nervous system.
Methods: A systematic search of databases was conducted, 2388 articles were identified and reviewed and 34 articles containing control and intervention groups were finally entered. Terms and keywords were selected based on PICO. The titles of obtained articles were first evaluated and repetitive titles were excluded. Then, the full texts of the remaining articles were studied, and those based on inclusion and exclusion criteria were evaluated. In addition, studies investigated in terms of the risk of bias (selection, performance, reporting, attrition, etc.), and content and studies that did not have the appropriate quality for the above reasons were excluded. EndNote X7 software used for managing resources, organizing studies, and identifying repetitive cases. The extracted information from the articles was analyzed by meta-analyzing. The dissimilarity between the studies was checked by Cochran’s Q test and I2 statistics.
Results: Postoperative pain is one of the major concerns of anesthesiologists, and its poor management can be associated with adverse events. The main goals of this study are to examine the effect of magnesium sulfate consumption on the first-time analgesic request after surgery, the amount of analgesic consumption after surgery, the patient’s pain score, and patient satisfaction after surgery. According to the P value (0.93), it can be concluded that the amount of pain in the first 24 hours of the two groups is not different. It can be concluded that the amount of pain in the first hour of the two groups is different (P value=0.04). The P value (0.0007) shows that the amount of analgesic request in the first 24 hours of the two groups is different. Except for one study, this study showed that magnesium sulfate made a significant improvement in terms of patient satisfaction. Overall, the use of magnesium sulfate significantly prolonged the time to request analgesics.
Conclusion: Since magnesium sulfate is a cost-effective drug, without major risk and a wide reliable serum range, the effect of this drug as an adjuvant should be further investigated.