E.Devandar Reddy¹, S.Srikanth²

¹Assistant Professor,Department of Anaesthesiology,Mallareddy Institute of Medical Sciences Hyderabad.Telangana,²Associate Professor,Department of Pathology,Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences,Karimnagar,Telangana,India.

Address for correspondence: Dr.E.Devendar Reddy,Assistant Professor,Department of Anaesthesiology,Mallareddy Institute of Medical Sciences,Hyderabad,Telanagana,India.

Email: enjamdev2000@yahoo.co.in

Introduction: Steroids are very potent anti inflammatory and immunosuppressive agents. They are used in various inflammatory and allergic conditions in various medical and surgical diseases. Study was undertaken to compare the effect of addition of dexamethasone as an adjunct to local anaesthetic in brachial plexus block on the onset time and duration of block.

Materials and Methods:The study was done on patients undergoing elective upper limb surgeries, aged between 18- 60 years were randomly allocated into two groups of 30 each. Group A were received 7mg/kg of 1.5% lidocaine with adrenaline with 2ml 0.9% normal saline and Group B received 7mg/kg of 1.5% lidocaine with adrenaline with 2ml (8mg) dexamethasone.
Sensory and motor blockade were recorded at an interval of 5, 15, 30min, and post operatively every 15min till the complete sensory and motor recovery.

Results:Both the onset of sensory and motor blockade was earlier in dexamethasone group than control group (sensory 636 ± 56.48 sec versus 678 ± 65.72 seconds, motor 698.33 ± 54.33 sec versus 740 ± 66.38 sec ) and both the duration of sensory and motor block was prolonged in dexamethasone group than control group ( sensory 230.00±13.37 min versus 150.50±12.45 min, motor 243.50±13.49min versus172.50±13.03 min .

Conclusion:We conclude that dexamethasone as an adjunct administered with lidocaine with adrenaline in brachial plexus block produces early onset of sensory and motor blockade, prolongs duration of both sensory and motor blockade, with out any side effects.

Keywords :Local anaesthetic, lidocaine, dexamethasone, adrenaline, brachial plexus