Authors : Pallavi Ahluwalia, Pallavi Ahluwalia, Taqui Fakri, Taqui Fakri
DOI : 10.18231/j.ijca.2020.023
Volume : 7
Issue : 1
Year : 2020
Page No : 129-135
Introduction: Spinal anaesthesia provides faster onset, effective sensory and motor block, adequate muscle
relaxation and profound analgesia simply by injecting a small amount of local anaesthetic drug directly into
CSF in subarachnoid space. This present study was conducted to assess the efficacy of Dexmedetomidine
as an adjuvant to Ropivacaine in terms of duration of sensory and motor block, post-operative analgesia
and side effects in lower limb orthopedic surgeries.
Materials and Methods: This prospective study was done on 50 ASA I/II patients of age 18-60 years
undergoing spinal anaesthesia for lower limb orthopaedic surgery. In this study patients received an
intrathecal injection of 22.5 mg Ropivacaine (3ml Ropivacaine 0.75%) & 5mg dexmedetomidine i.e. 0.5
ml. Onset of sensory/motor block, duration of sensory/motor block, duration of analgesia and side effects
were noted.
Results: Post-hoc bonferroni test was used for intercomparison of mean HR and MAP and significant
difference was observed between them. The mean onset of Sensory Block was 3.510.50, mean Time
to achieve maximum height of block (Minutes)was 10.630.59, Time to onset of regression at the
level of L1 (minutes) was 187.4522.61, mean Motor Block-Time to modified Bromage score 3 was
6.120.84 and Motor Block - Time to complete recovery (minutes) was 173.1434.26. The mean Time to
complete analgesia (in minutes) was 401.0616.91 and mean Time to effective analgesia (in minutes) was
415.2516.70.
Conclusion: The present study concludes that addition of dexmedetomidine with Ropivacaine provides
faster onset of sensory/motor block.
Keywords: Dexmedetomidine, Ropivacaine, Spinal Anaesthesia