A comparative evaluation of intraperitoneal bupivacaine alone and bupivacaine with dexmedetomidine for post-operative analgesia following laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Introduction: Intraperitoneal instillation of local anaesthetic agents alone or in combination with opioids, α2 agonists such as Dexmedetomidine have been found to reduce postoperative pain following laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The study was designed to compare the better drug among Bupivacaine alone and Bupivacaine with Dexmedetomidine with respect to their analgesic efficacy and safety profile. in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Patients and methods: The study was carried out on sixty patients of the American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) physical status I-II of either sex with ages ranging from 18 to 60 years posted for elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy under General Anaesthesia, equally divided into two groups, randomly allocated to one of the Groups using the table of randomization. Group B received Intraperitoneal Bupivacaine 40 ml 0.25% +5 ml normal saline and Group BD received Intraperitoneal Bupivacaine 40 ml 0.25% + Dexmedetomidine1 μg/kg diluted in 5 ml Normal saline.

Results: The mean heart rate and blood pressure (systolic, diastolic and mean) readings were significantly lower in Group BD than in Group B. The mean duration of analgesia in our study was longer in Group BD (7.5 ± 0.73 hours) when compared to Group B (5.9 ± 0.55 hours) with p-value & 0.0001 and CI 1.27 to 1.9, which was statistically significant. However, the post-operative analgesic requirement (rescue/demand) in Group B was clinically earlier and statistically significant as compared to Group BD. Postoperative VAS score ≥3 was considered the benchmark for providing rescue analgesia in the form of injection of Diclofenac 75 mg IV. In our study, we observed the pain scores via VAS/NRS at 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 4 h, 6 h, 8 h, 10 h, 12 h, 14 h, 16 h, 18 h, 20 h, 22 h and 24 h postoperatively. A comparison of pain scores from 30 min to 10hrs postoperatively showed a significant difference in both Groups with Group B having significantly higher VAS scores and lower VAS scores with Group BD.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that there is a shorter duration of action of 0.25% Bupivacaine alone as compared to 0.25% Bupivacaine + Dexmedetomidine. Since the laparoscope is still inside the abdominal cavity the drugs are easy to administer with no adverse effects and with a good safety profile because of the visualization of drug deposition in the right place. Intraperitoneal instillation of Bupivacaine with Dexmedetomidine for postoperative analgesia was very promising as a part of multimodal analgesia in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.