UROLOGICAL SURGERIES IN CHILDREN: Comparison Between 0.25% Bupivacaine and 0.25% Bupivacaine withDexmedetomidine in the Caudal Block

Postoperative pain is an annoying subjective sensation for both children and their parents. Almost 80% of the patients undergoing surgery experience postoperative pain, and 80% of them reported moderate to severe pain intensity. Management of postoperative pain has become a major concern in pediatrics. Results of many studies in different countries show that postoperative pain in children is inadequate. Lee et al showed that one of the main reasons for inadequate treatment of postoperative pain in children is difficulties with pain assessment and concerns related to the side effects of opioid analgesics.

The regional anesthetic technique significantly decreases postoperative pain and systemic analgesic requirements. Caudal block, usually combined with general anesthetic technique is one of the most popular, reliable, and safe anesthesia techniques for abdominal and lower limb surgeries in children but the main disadvantage of caudal analgesia is the short duration of action after a single injection.

Bupivacaine is a long-acting, reliable local anesthetic agent that is used as a caudal analgesic, but different auxiliary agents need to be co-administered to improve its analgesic efficiency. Various additives used in the past to increase the pain-free period postoperatively and to decrease the analgesic requirement such as midazolam neostigmine, ketamine, clonidine, and dexmedetomidine.

Dexmedetomidine is a potent and highly selective alpha 2 adrenergic agonists that has been described as safe and effective in many anesthetic applications and analgesic techniques. In contrast to other agents, it has sympatholytic, analgesic, and sedative effects, and is randomly free from side effects except for manageable hypotension and bradycardia.