Background and aims: Various additives have been evaluated for the purpose of enhancing quality of analgesia and prolonging duration of spinal anesthesia. This randomized, double-blind study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of intravenous dexamethasone in spinal anesthesia.
Methods: A total of sixty patients scheduled for lower segment cesarean section under spinal anesthesia were randomly allocated into two groups, group SD and group SN, including thirty patients each. All the patients received injection bupivacaine 0.5% heavy 10 mg through spinal anesthesia. Group SD received injection dexamethasone 8 mg intravenously, and group SN received injection normal saline (NS) 2 cc immediately after spinal anesthesia. Duration of sensory block, motor block, postoperative analgesia, visual analog pain scale (VAS) score, time of rescue analgesia, total analgesic requirement in the first 24 h, intra- and post-operative hemodynamics, and side effects if any were recorded. Whenever demanded rescue analgesia was given in the form of injection tramadol 100 mg.
Results: The mean duration of sensory block (min) in group SD and group SN was 162.50 and 106.17, respectively which was highly significant. Similarly, time to the requirement of first rescue analgesia was prolonged in group SD (8.67 h) as compared to group SN (4.40 h). Significant changes were also seen in VAS score in postoperative period after 1 h of surgery in group SD and group SN. Duration of motor block, intra- and post-operative hemodynamic parameters were comparable in both the groups. No side effects were recorded in both the groups.
Conclusion: We concluded that administration of dexamethasone 8 mg intravenously prolongs the duration of postoperative analgesia and sensory block in patients undergoing lower segment cesarean section under spinal anesthesia.
Keywords: Dexamethasone; postoperative analgesia; spinal anesthesia.