Pediatric Gabapentin Use in Postoperative Pain following Craniotomy: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Taylor F Faust, Garrett M Cail, Hannah Yates, Robert Parker and Sebastian Alston

Management of postoperative pain following craniotomy can be dealt with in several forms. Treatment options range from conventional protocols involving opioid narcotics, NSAIDS, non-opioid pain management, and non-pharmacological management. Due to the massively publicized opioid crisis in the United States and in other countries there is a call for alternative methods for pain management. Of the alternative pain management techniques, gabapentin has been used in acute postoperative settings due to its anticonvulsant properties and pain management capabilities. This drug has been extensively used in the adult population, but its use in the pediatric population is uncommon. This scoping review aims to identify the lack of documented postoperative use in the pediatric population, specifically following craniotomy. It will aim to emphasize the need for further exploration of the use of gabapentin in a postoperative setting and accentuate gabapentin’s theoretical benefit as an alternative medication for pain management. This article will also discuss the potential of Gabapentin as either an opioid alternative or in combination with non-opioid analgesics for postoperative pain management in pediatric populations. Execution of this through the use of multiple scholarly databases yielded 229 articles. Of these 229 articles 227 were excluded, two articles met inclusion criteria, unfortunately these did not directly utilize Gabapentin for pain relief, leaving the research regarding this topic to be non-existent.

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