Comparison of analgesic efficacy of levobupivacaine and levobupivacaine with dexamethasone in lower abdominal surgeries under subarachnoid block

Patients will be randomly allocated to one of the two groupsusing a computer-generated random number table. Concealment will be done usingconsecutively numbered sealed opaque envelopes.

Group-LS: 12.5 mg of 0.5%isobaric levobupivacaine (2.5 ml) + normal saline(1ml)

Group-LD: 12.5 mg of 0.5%isobaric levobupivacaine (2.5 ml) + 4 mg dexamethasone (1 ml)

                The total volume of intrathecal drug will be 3.5 ml inboth the groups.

Under continuous monitoring, subarachnoid block willbe performed under all aseptic precautions as per the standard protocol.Patients will be assessed for characteristics of sensory and motor block, pain score,haemodynamic parameters and side effects.

OUTCOMEMEASURES

1.     Analgesicefficacy: Duration of effective analgesia (Time from the subarachnoidblock to the time of patient’s first complaint of pain (VAS  3).

2.     Quality of sensory block.

3.     Quality of motor block.

4.     Side effects, if any.

 Statistical Analysis:

Since it’s a pilot study thereis no hypothesis testing. Post – hoc observed power will be calculatedandiffound≥ 80% we would apply test of significance. UnpairedT-test/ Man Whitney U tests will be used to obtain the significance. A p- value< 0.05 will be considered significant.