Abstract
Objective Acute pain is one of the most common pains experienced by post-cleft lip or cleft
surgery patients regardless of the administration of analgesic agents. This current
study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a curcumin patch as an adjuvant analgesic
agent on the post-cleft lip and cleft palate surgery patients.
Materials and Methods Fifty-five (33 male; 22 female) participants aged 36 months or less are recruited
in this pragmatic trial and randomly assigned to a control group, where no curcumin
patch was applied; or the experimental group, where the participants wore a curcumin
patch with a dosage of 100 mg. All participants (regardless of the group) received
a standardized postsurgery analgesic agent immediately after the surgery was completed.
A face, leg, activity, cry, and consolability (FLACC) scale was used to evaluate pain
levels for three subsequent time points.
Statistical Analysis All data were then analyzed by using the Mann–Whitney U test to compare the mean
differences between the two groups.
Results The results of the current study revealed that there was no significant difference
found between the control and the experimental group when mean pain scores were compared
for the first evaluation time. Yet, there was a significant difference (p < 0.01) between the two groups' mean pain scores on the second evaluation time.
Conclusion Curcumin patch was found to be effective when used as an adjuvant analgesic agent
to reduce acute-orofacial postsurgery pain in cleft lip and cleft surgery patients.
Keywords curcumin patch - orofacial pain - cleft lip surgery - acute pain - postoperative pain
- activity - cry - consolability - cleft palate surgery
