Epidural 0.5% Bupivacaine and 0.5% Levobupivacaine in Lower Limb Surgeries with respect to Block characteristics

Introduction: With the introduction of epidural anaesthesia, it is being widely used for abdominal surgeries and lower limb surgeries and mainstay for providing postoperative analgesia. With the development of enantiomers of Bupivacaine (Levobupivacaine and Ropivacaine), epidural anaesthesia is being used widely with less complications. Purpose: To compare the block characterstics and duration of analgesia of Bupivacaine 0.5% and Levobupivacaine 0.5% in lower limb surgeries. Materials and Method: After obtaining ethical committee approval and informed written consent from patients, the study was carried out on 70 patients of either sex, between 18 to 65 years of age. Patients were divided in two groups Group B( Bupivacaine) and Group L(Levobupivacaine) and 20 ml of study drug given in each group. Result: The Sensory block onset time between group B & L was highly significant. P value ≤0.001. Whereas the Motor block onset time between B & L was not significant (P value= 0.305). The duration of motor (P value = 0.892) and sensory block (P value = 0.659) between both group was not significant. The difference in the time of regression among the group B & L was highly significant in respect of motor and sensory the parameters P<0.001.There was marked difference in the duration of analgesia between the patients of Group B & L. P= 0.026 Conclusion: Thus from our study we can conclude that Onset of Sensory & motor block for Levobupivacaine was longer as compared with Bupivacaine. The highest sensory level of T7 segment was found to be with Group B then Group L.