Christmas and New Years is usually fairly dormant in terms of publications, but a few worth mentioning have surfaced. This recent meta-analysis of gabapentin as an analgaesic adjunct in spinal surgery was published in Pain Physician by Han et al. The group included 10 trials, covering 827 patients, and found significantly reduced postoperative morphine consumption, improved VAS-scores and fewer side-effects among patients who received gabapentin perioperatively, compared with placebo. This is in line with our own clinical observations and should prompt more anaesthetists to consider making GABA-ergic drugs part of their perioperative pain management in spinal surgical patients.