Levobupivacaine versus ropivacaine infiltration analgesia for mastopexy: a comparative study of 2 long-acting anesthetic drugs in infiltrative anesthesia for mastopexy

A prospective double-blind study was conducted to compare the analgesic properties of levobupivacaine and ropivacaine in a bilaterally symmetrical mastopexy model. Both of these 2 long-acting local anesthetic amides are associated with lower cardiac and central nervous system toxicity than racemic bupivacaine, a widely used agent for long-lasting perioperative analgesia in esthetic procedures. In this study, each of the 18 patients undergoing bilateral mastopexy under conscious sedation received preoperative infiltration with levobupivacaine in 1 breast and equal volume of ropivacaine in the other. Patients were requested to assess their pain separately in each side every 2 hours and for 12 hours postoperatively on a visual analog scale. Overall analgesia achieved up to 12 hours postoperatively was found to be statistically different between the 2 local anesthetic factors in favor of levobupivacaine. At 2 hours postoperatively, no difference was found between the 2 local anesthetic agents in terms of analgesic efficacy (P = 0.298). However, postoperative pain scores recorded after infiltration with levobupivacaine were significantly lower than pain scores for the ropivacaine-infiltrated sides (P<0.001) at all other timeframes. Both anesthetics provided satisfactory analgesia for at least 10 hours, but constantly low pain scores were recorded for levobupivacaine for 10 hours postoperatively, whereas for ropivacaine only for 6 hours. At 12 hours, 66% of patients needed oral analgesia for pain in the ropivacaine-infiltrated breast. It is concluded that levobupivacaine is more effective for local infiltrative analgesia in mastopexy than ropivacaine, providing longer-lasting postoperative analgesia.