TO COMPARE THE EFFICACY OF HYPERBARIC ROPIVACAINE 0.75% VS HYPERBARIC BUPIVACAINE 0.5% ON MOTOR RECOVERY AND POSTOPERATIVE AMBULATION AFTER SPINAL ANAESTHESIA IN INFRAUMBILLICAL SURGERIES

Spinal anaesthesia or subarachnoid block is a widely used regional anaesthetic technique in a variety of infraumbillical, perineal and lower limb surgeries. It is achieved by injection of local anaesthetic into subarachnoid space mainly in the lumbar area. 

It results in sympathetic, sensory and motor blockade depending the concentration, volume and baricity of the drug injected. Ropivacaine is an amide local anaesthetic which is produced as a pure S enantiomer. The S enantiomers are less neurotoxic and cardiotoxic compared to R enantiomers and racemic mixture forms of amide pipecoloxylidide local anaesthetics. Bupivacaine is considered the gold standard long acting local anaesthetic for most regional anaesthetic procedures such as subarachnoid block.

Ropivacaine compared to bupivacaine has a better safety profile but produces a lower grade of motor block and has a shorter duration of action.Studies have been done comparing the clinical effectiveness of 0.75% plain ropivacaine with 0.5% heavy bupivacaine which showed a similar quality of block with late onset and shorter duration of sensory and motor blockade in 0.75% plain ropivacaine. This study aims to compare the efficacy of hyperbaric ropivacaine 0.75% with hyperbaric bupivacaine 0.5% on motor recovery and post operative ambulation