Background and Aims To investigate the effect of giving ibuprofen to adolescents having oral surgery carried out under day-case general anaesthetic on their post-operative pain.

Methods Randomised, blinded, placebo-controlled design. 54 subjects aged 14–17 years randomly assigned to receive peros either tb ibuprofen or placebo (saline) before the start of surgery. Pain assessed by a research nurse using a visual analogue scale, firstly pre-surgery and then at 30, 60 and 120     min post-surgery. The time of post-surgery rescue analgesia requirements also noted.

Results Mean pain scores were significantly less in the ibuprofen group compared with the placebo group at 30 min post-surgery (P<0.01) and at 60 min post-surgery (P <0.01). There was no significant difference in mean pain scores at 120 min at which time the mean pain score in the placebo group had reduced to approach that of ibuprofen group. More subjects in the placebo group (23) required rescue analgesia compared with the ibuprofen group (10). The mean time to rescue analgesia was significantly longer in the ibuprofen group compared with the placebo group (P= 0.04).

Conclusions Giving peros ibuprofen significantly reduced post-operative pain in the early stages following oral surgery procedures carried out under general anaesthesia in adolescent subjects. It also reduced the need for post-surgery analgesia and significantly increased the time from surgery to any such required analgesia. Further research into the effects of pre-emptive analgesia on the surgical pain pathway is required.