Nalbuphine as Adjuvant During Bilateral Suprazygomatic Maxillary Nerve Block for Pediatric Cleft Palate Repair

August 28, 2026 updated by: Reem Ayman Mahmoud, Assiut University

Nalbuphine as Adjuvant During Bilateral Suprazygomatic Maxillary Nerve Block for Pediatric Cleft Palate Repair: A Prospective, Randomized Comparative, Controlled Double-blind Study.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of adding nalbuphine to bupivacaine via suprazygomatic nerve block for postoperative pain control and emergence agitation management in pediatrics aged from to 1 to 7 years who were maintained on sevoflurane inhalational anesthesia and scheduled for cleft lip and palate operation.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Cleft lip and cleft palate are the most common craniofacial abnormalities in children. Cleft surgery results in a profound sympathetic stimulation leading to hypertension, tachycardia, and bleeding. Postoperative pain can be severe, and many of these patients are at increased risk of opioid-induced respiratory depression. Emergence agitation (EA) is another common problem in these children, with an incidence between 10% and 80% after sevoflurane anesthesia. Inadequate postoperative analgesia combined with vigorous crying may lead to surgical complications including wound dehiscence, bleeding, and respiratory compromise. The anesthetic management of cleft surgery should ideally bound the intraoperative autonomic response and provide adequate analgesia without respiratory depression or EA. A combination of inhalation-based anesthesia and high-dose opioids has been described to block the autonomic response during surgical dissection; however, this technique may be associated with postoperative sedation and respiratory depression. Surgical infiltration with a local anesthetic and a vasoconstrictor promotes hemostasis and reduces the autonomic response intraoperatively but does not provide extended postoperative pain relief. Sensory innervation of the lip and palate is provided by branches of the maxillary nerve. Suprazygomatic maxillary nerve blocks have been shown to be opioid-sparing after cleft lip and palate surgery. The addition of opioid analgesic might both prolong the analgesia after a regional nerve block and reduce the incidence of EA.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
60

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Phase 2
  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • Egypt
      • Asyut, Egypt
        • Mohamed Fathy Mostafa

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Study Population

Sample size calculation was carried out using G*Power 3 software. A calculated minimum sample of 54 pediatric patients will be needed and further randomly assigned into one of two equal groups (Group N - Nalbuphine group): 27 patients and Group B - Control arm): 27 patients, to detect an effect size of 0.5 in the mean value of postoperative pain control and emergence agitation management with an error probability of 0.05 and 80% power on a two-tailed test. But to avoid possible loss of samples (dropouts) during the study, the number of patients in each group will be increased to 30 to be a total of 60 patients.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Age 1 to 7 years.
  2. Both genders.
  3. American society of anesthesiologists (ASA) physical state I-II.
  4. Children undergoing palate surgeries.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Guardians' refusal
  2. History of developmental delay or mental retardation.
  3. Children with any co-morbidities.
  4. Skin infection at the site of injection.
  5. Bleeding diathesis.
  6. Known allergy to any drugs used in this study.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Active Comparator: Bupivacaine
30 patients received SMB using bupivacaine 0.125% of 0.2 ml/kg on each side (with maximum volume of 4 ml).
Drug: Bupivacaine
30 patients received SMB using bupivacaine 0.125% of 0.2 ml/kg on each side (with maximum volume of 4 ml).
Active Comparator: Bupivacaine and Nalbuphine
30 patients received SMB using bupivacaine 0.125 of 0.2 ml/kg + 0.1 mg/kg nalbuphine on each side (with maximum volume of 4 ml).
Drug: Nalbuphine
bupivacaine 0.125% of 0.2 ml/kg and 0.1 mg/kg nalbuphine
Other Names:
  • Bupivacaine

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
pain control
Time Frame: first day postoperative
Postoperative pain will be assessed by FLACC which is (Face,Legs,Activity,Cry,Consolability) score in the first postoperative day.The scale is scored in the range of 0 - 10 with 0 representing no pain.10 representing severe pain. The scale has five criteria which are each assigned a score of 0, 1 or 2.
first day postoperative

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Effect of nalbuphine with maxillary nerve block on postoperative emergence agitation according to WATCHA Scale "emergancy delirium scale"
Time Frame: first day postoperative
The WATCHA scale is a four level arousal scale ranging from a "calm" patient (Score of 1) to "agitation with thrashing around" (Score of 4),"crying but can be consoled" is (Score of 2), "crying but cannot be consoled" is (Score of 3)
first day postoperative
Asses the time for rescue analgesia
Time Frame: first day postoperative
time to first dose of rescue analgesia, total amount of rescue analgesia in first 24 h postoperatively.
first day postoperative
Asses the parents satisfaction
Time Frame: first day postoprrative
Participants' satisfaction after the end of procedure the through 5-point Likert scale which is parent satisfaction score. (1 = very satisfied and willing to take the same medication and procedure in the future when indicated, 2 = satisfied, 3 = neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, 4 = dissatisfied, 5 = very dissatisfied).
first day postoprrative

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Assiut University

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Ekram AA Osman, professor, Assiut University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
July 31, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
October 31, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
January 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
October 14, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
October 19, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
October 25, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
September 1, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
August 28, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • Nalbuphine in nerve block

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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