Abstract: AIM: To investigate the effect of intra-venous infusion of lidocaine on postoperative pain, re-turn of bowel function and stress response after hyster-ectomia surgery. METHODS: Sixty patients scheduled to undergo hysterectomia surgery were randomly divided into two groups with thirty in each group.Group L re-ceived intravenous lidocaine bolus injection of 1.5 mg/kg at induction of anesthesia, then continuous infu-sion of 1 mg°kg^-1°h^-1 intraoperatively and infusion of 100 mg plus sulfentanyl 50 mg for 48 h postperatively . Group S received an equal volume saline and infusion of sulfentanyl 100mg for 48 h postperatively .Postoper-ative pain score at rest and cough were recorded by VAS .The times of first flatus, enterocinesia were recorded and the levels of motilin, cortisol and serum glucose were measured .RESULTS: Lidocaine signifi-cantly reduced postoperative pain, nause and vomit scores.Times to first flatus, enterocinesia were signifi-cantly shorter in patients who received lidocaine .the levels of motilin were significantly higher, but the lev-els of cortisol and serum glucose were significantly low-er in Group L than in GroupS. CONCLUSION: In-travenous lidocaine relieves postoperative pain, improve bowel function through increasing plasma motilin levels and decreasing stress responses after hysterectomia sur-gery .

Key words: lidocaine, intravenous infusion, bowel function, motilin, stress response