ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS Comparison of Intravenous Ibuprofen and Paracetamol for Postoperative Pain Management after Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy. A Randomized Controlled Study Bahadır Ciftci 1 & Mursel Ekinci 1 & Erkan Cem Celik 2 & Ahmet Kaciroglu 3 & Muhammet Ahmet Karakaya 1 & Yavuz Demiraran 1 & Yasar Ozdenkaya 4 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Background Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is defined as the first-step bariatric surgery for the treatment of obesity. Opioid analgesics are often preferred for pain management because of their strong analgesic potentials. However, opioids have undesirable adverse effects. Objectives The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the influence of IV forms of ibuprofen and paracetamol on pain management and opioid consumption on patients undergoing LSG surgery. Setting This study was conducted at Istanbul Medipol University Hospital. Methods Patients were stratified into three groups. Group I (group ibuprofen, n = 30) was administered 800 mg of IV ibuprofen, group P (group paracetamol, n = 30) was administered 1000 mg of IV paracetamol, and group C (control group, n = 30) was given 100 ml of saline solution. We evaluated opioid consumption and VAS scores postoperatively. Results This study included 90 patients who underwent LSG. The use of rescue medication in group I was statistically lower than the other groups. VAS scores in group I and group P at recovery and at 2, 4, 8, 12, and 24 h were lower than those in group C. In particular, the VAS scores in group I at the first 2 h postoperatively were significantly lower than those in group P (p < 0.05). Opioid consumption in group C was significantly higher than the other groups (p < 0.05). Conclusion Our study suggested that IV ibuprofen resulted in lower pain scores compared to paracetamol by reducing postop- erative opioid use in the first 24 h in patients undergoing LSG surgery. Keywords Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy . Analgesia . Ibuprofeny * Bahadır Ciftci baha_cftci@hotmail.com Mursel Ekinci murselek@mynet.com Erkan Cem Celik drerkancem@yahoo.com Ahmet Kaciroglu akaciroglu@gmail.com Muhammet Ahmet Karakaya muhammetahmetkarakaya@hotmail.com Yavuz Demiraran demiraran@gmail.com Yasar Ozdenkaya yozdenkaya@medipol.edu.tr 1 Present address: Department of Anesthesiology and Reanimation, Istanbul Medipol University, Bagcilar, 34000 Istanbul, Turkey 2 Department of Anesthesiology and Reanimation, Erzurum Regional Training and Research Hospital, Yakutiye, 25070 Erzurum, Turkey 3 Department of Anesthesiology and Reanimation, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Training and Research Hospital, Merkez, 34000 Istanbul, Turkey 4 Department of General Surgery, Istanbul Medipol University, Bagcilar, 34000 Istanbul, Turkey Obesity Surgery https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-018-3613-1