Intrathecal Bupivacaine Vs. Bupivacaine And Clonidine In Paediatrics Age Group: A Comparative Evaluation.

The study was done to compare the efficacy, duration, quality and side effects of intrathecal bupivacaine alone and bupivacaine plus clonidine. A prospective randomised double blind study was carried out in 60 ASA-1 paediatrics patients undergoing surgeries below T8 dermatome up to 2 hrs duration. Patients were randomly allocated in two groups. Group-A received bupivacaine .5% heavy (0.4mg/kg for 5-15kg or 0.3mg/kg for >15 kg) and Group-B received bupivacaine 0.5%heavy (0.4mg/kg for 5-15kg or 0.3mg/kg for >15kg) and preservative free clonidine (1 mcg/kg), comprising 30 patients each. Time of onset of sensory block, maximum level of sensory block, duration of sensory block, duration of post-op analgesia and side effects were observed. Data obtained was subjected to statistical computation and analysed using computer programme statistical package for social science (SPSS)ver-16.0 and tests performed were unpaired student-t test, nonparametric mann-whitney two samples test and Chi square test. Value of p<0.05 was considered significant and p<0.0000001 highly significant. Awake sedation score with clonidine was better than bupivacaine alone. The side effect profile: only one patient of Group-A had bradycardia and in Group-B two patients had bradycardia and two patients had hypotension. No patients in any group had nausea vomitting, post dural puncture headache, urinary retention or high spinal. Adding clonidine is providing early onset of sensory block, adequate sedation and prolonged postoperative analgesia.