A Case Study of Dexmedetomidine as an Intrathecal Adjuvant for Postoperative Analgesia in Orthopedic Lower Limb Surgeries

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Spinal anaesthesia is the most common approach which is used for lower limb surgery. Dexmedetomidine is the recent drug which acts on 2-adrenergic receptors in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord to produce analgesic effects. The aim is to check efficacy and safety of intrathecal Dexmedetomidine added to Ropivacaine. Postoperative cumulative analgesic consumption and maximum visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score have been evaluated as secondary outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS With simple random sampling technique, 60 patients of either sex between age group of 18 to 60 yrs, ASA I or II, posted for lower limb orthopedic surgery under spinal anaesthesia were selected who fulfil the inclusion, exclusion criteria and divided them into two groups of 30 each. RESULTS Both absolute and effective analgesia durations were prolonged in Group RD with absolute analgesia duration being 350.3359.49 minutes in Group RD as compared to 215.0325.57 minutes in Group R (pless than0.001), the difference being statistically highly significant. The duration of effective analgesia in Group RD was 490.8338.73 minutes as compared to 271.8334.42 minutes in Group R (pless than0.001). This difference was highly significant statistically. No postoperative complications were seen in either of thegroups. CONCLUSION Mixture of Dexmedetomidine 5g and Isobaric Ropivacaine 0.75 % (22.5 mg) when given intrathecally influences the sensory and motor block by shortening the onset time and prolonging the duration of absolute and effective analgesia without affecting the other parameters and complications of subarachnoid block