Objective. To summarise the evidence for use of intravenous magnesium for analgesic effect in caesarean section patients.\nBackground. Postcaesarean pain requires effective analgesia. Magnesium, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist and\ncalcium-channel blocker, has previously been investigated for its analgesic properties. Methods. A systematic search was\nconducted of PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar databases for randomised-control trials\ncomparing intravenous magnesium to placebo with analgesic outcomes in caesarean patients. Results. Ten trials met inclusion\ncriteria. Seven were qualitatively compared after exclusion of three for unclear bias risk. Four trials were conducted with general\nanaesthesia, while three utilised neuraxial anaesthesia. Five of seven trials resulted in decreased analgesic requirement postoperatively\nand four of seven resulted in lower serial visual analogue scale scores. Conclusions. Adjunct analgesic agents are utilised\nto improve analgesic outcomes and minimise opioid side effects. Preoperative intravenous magnesium may decrease total\npostcaesarean rescue analgesia consumption with few side effects; however, small sample size and heterogeneity of methodology\nin included trials restricts the ability to draw strong conclusions. Therefore, given the apparent safety and efficacy of magnesium,\nits role as an adjunct analgesic in caesarean section patients should be further investigated with the most current anaesthetic\ntechniques.
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