Vishwanath V.M. 1 , Ravishankar R.B. 2
BACKGROUND There are many modalities to give postoperative analgesia. Out of them epidural analgesia offers good reliable pain relief. Addition of alpha agonist enhances the onset of analgesia and duration of analgesia is prolonged. This study was done to compare the analgesic efficacy, and the hemodynamic parameters of ropivacaine compared with ropivacaine in combination with clonidine for post-operative epidural analgesia.1 METHODS 30 patients of age 18 - 70 years with ASA grade of I & II, undergoing elective lower limb and abdominal surgeries were randomly taken into each of the 2 groups. Group R received 0.2 % ropivacaine and group RC received 0.2 % ropivacaine + clonidine (1 mcg / Kg) epidurally.1,2 Patients were monitored for onset, duration, quality of analgesia, cardiorespiratory stability and side effects. RESULTS The onset of analgesia and quality of analgesia were better in the RC group compared to the R group. The duration of analgesia in group RC (9.43 + - 1.17 hours) was found to be significantly prolonged than group R (4.90 + - 1.03 hours) with p < 0.001. Blood pressure was more stable in group RC compared to group R.3 CONCLUSIONS In this study we found that ropivacaine with clonidine as epidural postoperative analgesia provided superior and more effective analgesia when compared to ropivacaine. The duration of analgesia was significantly longer in group ropivacaine with clonidine..
