Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Opioid-free anesthesia for quality of recovery score after surgery: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Authors' conclusion
This meta-analysis shows OFA improves early postoperative quality of recovery and reduces the occurrence of nausea, vomiting, and hypotension without increasing the risk of bradycardia or prolonging the time for extubation of the trachea.
Study context
- Population
- Patients undergoing surgery13 randomized controlled trials (RCTs)
- Comparison
- Opioid-free anesthesia (OFA) vs opioid-based anaesthesia
Methodological detailsGrading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE)
- GRADE
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
OFA vs OBASMD (95 % CI)
QoR-15; I2 = 98 %; 293 patients in 3 trials
2.16(0.13–4.20)
QoR-40; I2 = 82 %; 1464 patients in 236 trials (as printed)
0.47(0.18–0.77)
Further pooled results
Time to tracheal extubation
- No difference
Safety
- Incidence of nausea, vomiting and hypotension reduced with OFA
- No difference in risk of bradycardia
Parts of this Brief are withheld: the automatic checks could not confirm them against the abstract.
Original publication
Opioid-free anesthesia for quality of recovery score after surgery: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Clin Anesth. Published 31 March 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →