Efficacy of Retroclavicular Dexamethasone With Bupivacaine in Patients Undergoing Upper Limb Vascular Surgeries

Regional anesthesia (RA) offers several advantages over general anesthesia (GA) for upper limb orthopedic surgery. One of the advantages is the improvement in postoperative pain, which leads to decreased use of postoperative opioids needs and reduces the recovery time for patients . A variety of approaches for regional blockade for upper extremity surgery have been described.

Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid drug that has been used as an adjuvant to reduce postoperative pain.

The use of peri neural dexamethasone (i.e. dexamethasone added to the local anesthesia solution) as an adjuvant to peripheral nerve block to improve analgesia provided by local anesthetic alone . Peri neural dexamethasone, as an adjuvant to peripheral nerve block, has been associated with faster onset of anesthesia , longer duration of anesthesia/analgesia decreased postoperative pain intensity and decreased postoperative analgesia requirements compared with local anaesthetic alone . The exact mechanism by which dexamethasone reduces pain is not known. The decrease in pain intensity and the prolonged analgesia attained with the use of perineural dexamethasone may be the result of a local, or systemic action, or both . Dexamethasone may act locally on glucocorticosteroid receptors to induce vasoconstriction, thereby decreasing systemic absorption of local anaesthetics . Other potential mechanisms of action include suppression of C-fibre transmission of pain signals and direct action on the nerve cell to reduce neural discharge . Dexamethasone may act systemically by reducing the inflammatory response caused by surgical tissue injury .