We aimed to determine the magnitude of peri-operative opioid sparing effect when general anesthesia is combined with spinal analgesia for laparoscopic gynecological surgery.

A prospective randomized controlled study; a three-group trial with two comparisons (each intervention group to control).

Operating room and postoperative recovery area.

Patients aged between 18 and 65 years with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 1 or 2 who were scheduled for inpatient elective laparoscopic gynecological surgery with expected pneumoperitoneum duration of at least 20 min. Of 102 randomized patients, 99 completed the study.

Patients were randomized to general anesthesia alone (control group) or combined with very-low-dose (levobupivacaine 3.75 mg; sufentanil 2.5 μg) or low-dose (levobupivacaine 7.5 mg; sufentanil 2.5 μg) spinal analgesia.

Primary endpoints were perioperative opioid consumption and pain scores (11-point numeric rating scale) at 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 4 h and 24 h post-surgery. Secondary endpoints were patient satisfaction with anesthetic care and participation in research, sevoflurane consumption and adverse effects.

Intra-operative sufentanil (median [95% CI]) consumption was 16.1 (10.5–22.6) μg/h in the control group versus 4.7 (3.2–9.2) μg/h in the very-low-dose and versus 2.9 (0.0–4.0) μg/h in the low-dose spinal analgesia groups (p < 0.001, for both comparisons). Median (95% CI) piritramide consumption at 24 h post-surgery was 7.5 (3–8) mg in the control group versus 5 (0–7.5) mg in the very-low dose spinal analgesia group (p = 0.182) and versus 2 (0–2.5) mg in the low-dose spinal analgesia group (p = 0.001). Postoperative pain scores were consistently <3 only in the low dose spinal analgesia group. Patient satisfaction with anesthetic care and participation in research was very high in all groups.

Low-dose spinal analgesia in combination with general anesthesia reduces peri-operative opioid consumption in laparoscopic gynecological surgery in immediate postoperative period.