Background: Postoperative pain poses a high risk of psychological and physical trauma to surgical patients. Magnesium sulfate (MgSO₄) is inexpensive, safe, and has been used in many anesthesia procedures to evaluate its role in reducing perioperative pain and opioid consumption.
Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted across several databases, including Google Scholar, Cochrane, and PubMed, up to 2024. The study included trials that used magnesium alone or in combination perioperatively.
Results: Our search included clinical trials, totaling 29 articles. Eighteen of them examined magnesium alone compared with various analgesics or placebo in clinical studies, which may help reduce postoperative pain and opioid consumption. The effectiveness of magnesium alone was assessed in various surgical procedures, using different doses of magnesium sulfate and various methods of administration. Eleven articles examined magnesium as an additive to show its effectiveness in combination with conventional anesthetics and analgesics.
Conclusion: Magnesium has been compared with many anesthetics and analgesics, both alone and in combination, showing remarkable efficacy in relieving pain during surgery and reducing opioid consumption. Many studies found that intraperitoneal magnesium sulfate had significantly greater efficacy than intravenous administration. A dose of 30–50 mg/kg of magnesium sulfate, followed by a maintenance dose of 6–12 mg/kg/h, is recommended and was found to be effective and safe in many trials.