Evaluating the efficacy and safety of perianal injection of liposomal ropivacaine HR18034 for postoperative analgesia following hemorrhoidectomy: A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, controlled phase II clinical trial.

Study Objective: HR18034, composed of the ropivacaine encapsulated in multi-lamellar, concentric circular structure liposomes as the major component and a small amount of free ropivacaine, has performed well in animal experiments and phase I clinical trials. This trial was to investigate the efficacy, safety, pharmacokinetic profile and the minimum effective dose of HR18034 for postoperative analgesia after hemorrhoidectomy compared with ropivacaine.

Design: A multicenter, randomized, double-blind trial.

Setting: 19 medical centers in China.

Patients: 85 patients undergoing hemorrhoidectomy between October 2022 to November 2022.

Interventions: Patients were randomly divided into HR 18034 190 mg group, 285 mg group, 380 mg group and ropivacaine 75 mg group, receiving single local anesthetic perianal injection for postoperative analgesia.

Measurements: The primary outcome was the area under the resting state NRS score -time curve within 72 h after injection. The second outcomes included the proportion of patients without pain, the proportion of patients not requiring rescue analgesia, cumulative morphine consumption for rescue analgesia, etc. Safety was evaluated by adverse events incidence and plasma ropivacaine concentrations were measured to explore the pharmacokinetic characteristics of HR18034.

Main Results: The areas under the NRS score (at rest and moving states)-time curve were significantly lower in HR 18034 380 mg group than ropivacaine 75 mg at 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h after administration. However, this superiority was not observed in HR18034 190 mg group and 285 mg group. There was no difference in cumulative morphine consumption for rescue analgesia between HR 18034 groups and ropivacaine group.

Conclusions: HR 18034 380 mg showed superior analgesic efficacy and equivalent safety compared to ropivacaine 75 mg after hemorrhoidectomy, thus preliminarily determined as minimum effective dose.