A comparative study of caudal anesthesia with bupivacaine v/s bupivacaine with dexmedetomidine in lower abdominal surgeries in pediatric age group

Abstract

Background: caudal anaesthesia has short­term effect. Alpha­2 adenoreceptors when used as adjuvant to local anaesthetic in children prolongs analgesic duration. The study is aimed to assess the efficacy of addition of dexme­detomidine with Bupivacaine in caudal block for extending postoperative analgesia and its safety profile in pediatric infra­umbilical surgeries. Method: the prospective interventional longitudinal double blinded study was conducted on 60 patients randomly divided into two groups by simple lottery method: group B who received (0.25 %) bupivacaine 1 ml/kg plus 1 ml nor­mal saline (NS), and those in group BD who received (0.25 %) bupivacaine 1 ml/kg plus 0.5 μg/kg dexmedetomidine in 1 ml NS. Post­surgery, both groups were compared in R studio v1.2.5001. Association between the adverse effect and other variables (age, gender, type of surgery, groups) were assessed by Multiple linear regression. Results: in group BD, duration of analgesia prolonged significantly (P 0.05). Conclusion: in children, dexmedetomidine when used along with bupivacaine prolongs postoperative analgesia du­ration, without any significant side effects.

Keywords

• bupivacaine
• dexmedetomidine
• hemodynamics
• postoperative pain