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NCT Number: NCT07591220

The Efficacy and Safety of Loxoprofen Sodium Patch in Relieving Postoperative Pain After Thoracoscopic Surgery

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is less invasive compared to traditional thoracotomy, but it is still reported that the incidence of acute pain following VATS exceeds 80%. Inadequate postoperative analgesia may trigger a series of adverse physiological stress responses, increase the occurrence of postoperative complications, and affect the rehabilitation process. If acute pain is not managed promptly and sufficiently, nearly one-quarter of patients may develop chronic pain, impacting normal life and sleep quality after discharge. Acute pain after VATS is mainly caused by the release of inflammatory mediators after soft tissue injury at the surgical site, which activates peripheral pain receptors and leads to abnormal action potentials transmitted along A δ and C fibers. Inflammatory mediators released from the soft tissues around incisions not only significantly alters the chemical microenvironment at the peripheral terminals of nociceptors, directly inducing pain, but also sensitizes afferent fibers, contributing to peripheral sensitization. Therefore, drugs with potent local anti-inflammatory properties such as Loxoprofen Sodium may play a key role in preventing or reducing postoperative pain. The investigators conducted a multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled clinical study to explore the use of Loxoprofen Sodium Patch for preoperative local incision analgesia in VATS patients. The investigators aim to observe whether this method can effectively alleviate postoperative incision pain, reduce the dosage of postoperative analgesics and the side effects caused using postoperative analgesics, improve patient satisfaction, and provide new ideas for postoperative analgesia in VATS patients, promoting rapid recovery after VATS.

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Key information

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients scheduled for elective Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for wedge resection, segmentectomy and lobectomy of the lungs under general anesthesia;
  • 8 to 64 years old;
  • American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status of I-III;
  • Patients must be able to understand the nature and potential personal consequences of the clinical trial and cooperate with follow-up investigations
  • signing of the informed consent form.

Exclusion criteria

  • History of chronic pain syndrome of any cause and mental illness;
  • Excessive alcohol or drug abuse, chronic opioid use (more than 2 weeks or 3 days per week for more than 1 month), use of drugs with confirmed or suspected sedative or analgesic effects, or use of any painkiller within 24 h before surgery;
  • History of hypertension (Grade 3, extremely high risk);
  • Pregnancy or breastfeeding;
  • Extreme body mass index (BMI) (< 15 or > 35);
  • Participation in another interventional trial that interferes with the intervention or outcome of this trial;
  • Digestive system diseases (such as peptic ulcers, gastric bleeding);
  • Patients with coronary artery disease;
  • Patients with renal impairment (serum creatinine > 176 µmol/L) and abnormal liver function(alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and/or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) > 2× the upper limit of normal (ULN) or total bilirubin (TBIL) ≥ 1.5×ULN);
  • Subjects with coagulation dysfunction (prothrombin time or activated partial thromboplastin time is higher than the normal threshold) or patients who are taking oral anticoagulants for other medical reasons and have not stopped it before surgery, such as warfarin or new anticoagulants rivaroxaban or dabigatran;
  • Patients with a history of allergy to anyone of the study drugs;

Treatment and study plan

Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the incision site

Drug

Apply Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the incision site of patients undergoing Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery 12 hours before surgery

Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the contralateral side

Drug

Apply Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the contralateral side of patients undergoing Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery 12 hours before surgery

Primary outcomes

  1. Intravenous Morphine Equivalents of Rescue Analgesic Medications Within 48 Hours Postoperatively

    Time frame: The postoperative period 48 hours

Secondary outcomes

  1. Area Under the Curve (AUC) of Numeric Rating Scale at rest (NRSr) Within 0-72 Hours Postoperatively

    Time frame: Data will be collected at 4、12、24、36 and 72 hours postoperatively

    scores of 1-3 indicate mild pain, 4-6 denote moderate pain, and 7-10 signify severe pain

  2. Area under the curve (AUC) of the Numerical Rating Scale during movement (NRSm) within 0-72 hours postoperatively

    Time frame: Data will be collected at 4、12、24、36 and 72 hours postoperatively

    The Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) designates 0 as representing no pain and 10 as representing the most severe pain, scores of 1-3 indicate mild pain, 4-6 denote moderate pain, and 7-10 signify severe pain.

  3. Numeric Rating Scale at rest (NRSr) at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months postoperatively

    Time frame: Postoperative 7 day, 1 month and 3 month.

    The Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) designates 0 as representing no pain and 10 as representing the most severe pain; scores of 1-3 indicate mild pain, 4-6 denote moderate pain, and 7-10 signify severe pain.

  4. Patient Satisfaction Scale(PSS)

    Time frame: Postoperative hours 4、12、24 and 48 hours

    Patient Satisfaction Scale(PSS) on a scale ranging from 0 to 10, where 0 denotes "completely dissatisfied" and 10 signifies "extremely satisfied.

  5. Postoperative nausea and vomiting(PONV)

    Time frame: Postoperatively within 48 hours

  6. wound healing score

    Time frame: Postoperative 72 hours、1 and 3 months.

    The wound healing score is evaluated by independent researchers based on the wound healing score table, which includes three aspects: skin healing, incision infection, and hair growth. The total score is obtained by adding up the three scores. Excellent wound healing: 3 points; Good wound healing is 4-5; Poor wound healing: total score greater than or equal to 6 points.

  7. postoperatively and patient and observer scar assessment scale

    Time frame: Postoperative 72 hours、1 and 3 months

    Postoperatively and patient and observer scar assessment scale: the observer scores the scar based on the distribution of blood vessels around the incision, color, scar thickness, surface roughness, area, and softness. Each score ranges from 1 to 10 points and higher scores indicating more severe scars; The patient evaluates the scar based on whether there is pain or itching, color, softness, thickness, and self-perception. Each score range is also 1-10 points, with 1 point indicating no difference from normal skin and a higher score indicating more severe scars.

  8. Adverse events

    Time frame: Within 72 hours postoperatively

    Such as itching, erythema, contact dermatitis, discomfort in the stomach, elevated ALT (GPT) and elevated AST (GOT)

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Beijing Tiantan Hospital

Other

Registry information

Official study title

The Efficacy and Safety of Incisional Preemptive Analgesia Using Loxoprofen Sodium Patch in Patients Undergoing Thoracoscopic Surgery: a Multi-center Randomized Controlled Trial.

Important dates

Study start
2026
Primary completion
2027
Study completion
2028
First posted
May 15, 2026
Registry last updated
Jun 10, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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