Joung KW, et al. - Researchers investigated the effects of preoperative dexamethasone on postoperative pain in 40 patients who underwent thoracotomy in this randomized, double-blind study. Patients were randomized to receive either dexamethasone via 0.1 mg/kg intravenous bolus before anesthetic induction or an equal volume of saline. The investigators did not observe any significant difference in epidural patient-controlled analgesia consumption between the control and dexamethasone infusion groups at 24 hours, and there were no significant differences in the pain intensity scores during resting and coughing at postoperative 24 and 72 hours, quality of recovery, total amount of rescue analgesics required, and/or length of hospital stay. Overall, a single intravenous administration of dexamethasone during the preoperative period did not reduce opioid consumption and pain following thoracotomy.