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

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

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Postoperative Pain; Lobectomy; Segmentectomy; Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS); Wedge Resection; Loxoprofen Sodium Patch; Local Incision
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the contralateral side; Drug: Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the incision site

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 156
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Fang Luo; Phone Number: +86 13611326978; Email: 13611326978@163.com

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Patients scheduled for elective Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for wedge resection, segmentectomy and lobectomy of the lungs under general anesthesia;
2. 8 to 64 years old;
3. American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status of I-III;
4. Patients must be able to understand the nature and potential personal consequences of the clinical trial and cooperate with follow-up investigations
5. signing of the informed consent form.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. History of chronic pain syndrome of any cause and mental illness;
2. 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;
3. History of hypertension (Grade 3, extremely high risk);
4. Pregnancy or breastfeeding;
5. Extreme body mass index (BMI) (< 15 or > 35);
6. Participation in another interventional trial that interferes with the intervention or outcome of this trial;
7. Digestive system diseases (such as peptic ulcers, gastric bleeding);
8. Patients with coronary artery disease;
9. 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);
10. 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;
11. Patients with a history of allergy to anyone of the study drugs;

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the contralateral side; We apply Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the contralateral side of the incision in patients undergoing Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery 12 hours before surgery.	Drug: Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the contralateral side; Apply Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the contralateral side of patients undergoing Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery 12 hours before surgery
Experimental: Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the incision site; Apply Loxoprofen Sodium Patch to the incision site of patients undergoing Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery 12 hours before surgery	Drug: Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the incision site; Apply Loxoprofen Sodium Patch on the incision site of patients undergoing Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery 12 hours before surgery

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Intravenous Morphine Equivalents of Rescue Analgesic Medications Within 48 Hours Postoperatively	The postoperative period 48 hours

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Area Under the Curve (AUC) of Numeric Rating Scale at rest (NRSr) Within 0-72 Hours Postoperatively	scores of 1-3 indicate mild pain, 4-6 denote moderate pain, and 7-10 signify severe pain	Data will be collected at 4、12、24、36 and 72 hours postoperatively
Patient Satisfaction Scale(PSS)	Patient Satisfaction Scale(PSS) on a scale ranging from 0 to 10, where 0 denotes "completely dissatisfied" and 10 signifies "extremely satisfied.	Postoperative hours 4、12、24 and 48 hours
Postoperative nausea and vomiting(PONV)		Postoperatively within 48 hours
Area under the curve (AUC) of the Numerical Rating Scale during movement (NRSm) within 0-72 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.	Data will be collected at 4、12、24、36 and 72 hours postoperatively
Numeric Rating Scale at rest (NRSr) at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months 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.	Postoperative 7 day, 1 month and 3 month.
Adverse events	Such as itching, erythema, contact dermatitis, discomfort in the stomach, elevated ALT (GPT) and elevated AST (GOT)	Within 72 hours postoperatively
postoperatively and patient and observer scar assessment scale	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.	Postoperative 72 hours、1 and 3 months
wound healing score	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.	Postoperative 72 hours、1 and 3 months.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Beijing Tiantan Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): June 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): April 30, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 9, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 9, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): May 15, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 10, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 7, 2026
• Last Verified: June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Postoperative Complications; Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Signs and Symptoms; Pain, Postoperative
• Other Study ID Numbers: KY2025-338-02-2

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No