Background: lack of proper control of acute postoperative pain often leads to lingering pain or chronic pain. several studies have emphasized the role of beta-blockers in reducing postoperative pain .Esmolol is a selective short-acting beta-blocker that produces few side effects. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of intravenous intraoperative esmolol on postoperative pain following orthopedic leg fracture surgery

Methods: In a clinical trial, 82 patients between 20 65 years of age with tibia fractures and American society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status I & II who underwent surgery were divided into two groups .Group A received esmolol and group B received normal saline. Postoperative pain was measured at three time points: entering the recovery unit, and at 3 h and 6h following surgery, using the visual analogue Scale (VAS) .A P value of < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: mean VAS scores at all three time were significantly different between the two test groups (P = 0.02 , P = 0.0001 , and p = 0.0001 , respectively).The consumption of pethidine was lower in group A than in group B (P - 0.004) and the duration of its effect was significantly longer in time (P – 0.026).

Conclusions: Intravenous intraoperative esmolol is effective in the reduction of postoperative pain following leg fracture surgery .It reduced opioid consumption following surgery and delayed patient requests for analgesics.

(Korean J pain 2015; 28; 198-202)