Local anaesthesia in elective inguinal hernia repair: A randomised, double-blind study comparing the efficacy of levobupivacaine with racemic bupivacaine

Objective: To assess the use of infiltration with local anaesthetics levobupivacaine and bupivacaine, during inguinal hernia repair. Design: Double‐blind, randomised study. Setting: Postgraduate medical school, United Kingdom. Subjects: 69 male patients aged 18 years or older. Interventions: Wound infiltration with 0.25% levobupivacaine and 0.25% racemic bupivacaine. Main outcome measures: Area under the curve (AUC) of visual analogue scale (VAS) scores for postoperative pain at rest in the supine position, rising from the supine to the sitting position, and walking, against time for both treatment groups. Results: There were no significant differences between treatment groups for the AUC of VAS scores for postoperative pain, global verbal pain rating or time to first dose of analgesic medication. Conclusions: Levobupivacaine exerts a similar anaesthetic and analgesic effect to racemic bupivacaine when infiltrated both intraoperatively and during the early postoperative period for elective inguinal hernia repair.