Abstract
Background: Spinal anesthesia is an age old, tested, effective and economical technique of regional anaesthesia especially for lower-limb orthopaedic surgeries because of its excellent muscle relaxation and intraoperative and postoperative analgesia profile. Aims: To compare the efficacy of adjuvants dexmedetomidine and fentanyl when added to intrathecal bupivacaine. Setting & Design: 120 patients were enrolled in the study. They were randomly allocated into dexmedetomidine group (BD) and fentanyl group (BF) and received 5 µg dexmedetomidine and 25 µg fentanyl respectively as adjuvants to 2.5 ml intrathecal bupivacaine. Materials & Methods: Both group BD and BF were compared with respect to age, sex, weight, height, time to onset of maximum motor blockade (Bromage 4 ), maximum level of sensory level achieved, intraoperative VAS score, hemodynamic, postoperative VAS score, time to two – segment regression, time to regression to S2 level and regression to Bromage 0 were noted. Statistical Analysis: Unpaired t-test and ch i- square test were used. Conclusion & Results: Significant difference was found between both groups with BD group having prolonged time to regression in two-segment and S1 level and Bromage - 0 postoperative VAS scores were lesser with BD group.