A Comparative Study of two Doses of Intrathecal Clonidine with Hyperbaric Bupivacaine in Elective Lower Abdominal in a Tertiary Care Centre

Abstract

Introduction: For lower limb and lower abdominal surgeries, the standard
anaesthetic technique is subarachnoid block. Adrenaline being the first spinal
adjuvant used to increase the duration and to reduce the toxicity of spinal anaesthesia
in 1903. From then on many drugs have been tried in search for an ideal adjuvant.
They are opioids, sodium bicarbonate, ketamine, neostigmine, midazolam and the
latest inclusion is clonidine.
Aim: To study the effects of adding two doses of clonidine (30 and 45 mcg) to 12.5
mg hyperbaric bupivacaine in lower abdominal and lower limb surgeries. Sensory
and motor parameters and analgesia were monitored.
Materials and Methods: After getting the ethical committee approval the study was
conducted in 90 patients undergoing elective lower abdominal and lower limb
surgeries It was a double blinded study in which patients were randomly allocated
into 3 groups I, II and III. Group I received only intrathecal bupivacaine 2.5mg.
Group II received bupicaine
2.5mg + clonidine 30µg. Group III received bupivacaine 2.5mg + clonidine 45µg.
Sensory and motor parameters and analgesia were monitored along with the vitals of
the patient.
Results and Conclusion: This study shows that adding 45µg of clonidine
significantly results in more duration of post operative analgesia than adding 30µg of
clonidine to bupivacaine and bupivacaine alone without any side effects.