Indian Journal of Pain (Jan 2019)

Effects of 0.5% heavy bupivacaine at room versus body temperature on shivering and analgesia after spinal anesthesia in patients undergoing cesarean section

  • Khoula Mohammed Saif Al-Mandhari,
  • Amal Ali Mubarak Al-Shukaili,
  • Basman Younis,
  • Shobha Lad,
  • Rashid M Khan,
  • Naresh Kaul

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpn.ijpn_42_19
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 33, no. 2
pp. 77 – 80

Abstract

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Background: Shivering is an undesirable, unpleasant experience after spinal anesthesia. Injecting cold bupivacaine has been incriminated as a contributory factor. Aims and Objective: In this prospective study we evaluated the efficacy of warming the heavy bupivacaine to body temperature for prevention of shivering and if it influences analgesic quality of spinal anesthesia. Materials and Methods: In this double blind, randomized controlled study, 100 patients aged 20-35 years of American Society of Anesthesiologist physical status I and II undergoing elective or emergency Caesarean sections were included and allocated to either Room temperature group (RT Group, n= 50), or Body temperature group (BT group, n = 50). A standard spinal anesthetic of 2ml of 0.5 % heavy bupivacaine plus 20 microgram of fentanyl was administered using 25G pencil point spinal needle in the sitting position. Besides the incidence and intensity of shivering and effect on intraoperative analgesia, effect on hemodynamics, nausea, vomiting, blood loss, pruritis and Apgar scores were recorded. Data was analyzed using SPSS (The Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 22.0 software (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, New York, USA). P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The patients were comparable in terms of demographic variables. Shivering was present in 31 (62%) and 7 (14%) patients respectively in RT and BT Groups, which was statistically significant (P = 0.0001). Intensity of shivering ≥3 was observed in 15 (30%) patients of RT group and 5 (10%) patient in BT group. We did not note any difference in the analgesic status intraoperatively nor any difference in the duration of analgesia. Surprisingly, the incidence of pruritis was significantly reduced in the BT group as compared to RT group (P = 0.037). Conclusions: Warming the heavy bupivacaine to body temperature is effective in preventing shivering and reducing pruritis secondary to spinal anesthesia without affecting analgesia.

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