Manjunath Timmappa Bhat 1 , Bharath Kumar Hegde
BACKGROUND Post-anaesthetic shivering is of major concern, because it is one of the very important causes of patient discomfort after anaesthesia. In addition, it is also responsible for increased blood pressure, increased consumption of oxygen by the body and increased nausea and vomiting. The aim of this study is to compare the effects of ketamine and ondansetron for prevention of shivering after cesarean section under spinal anaesthesia. MATERIALS AND METHODS This randomised single blind comparative clinical study was conducted on 160 pregnant patients belonging to ASA grade I presenting for elective caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia at our hospital. The patients were randomly divided into two groups of 80 each belonging to either ketamine or ondansetron groups. The ketamine group received 0.25 mg/kg of ketamine and ondansetron group received 4 mg of ondansetron. From the time of arrival of patients to recovery room to 30 minutes later, evaluation of shivering and sedation was done in addition to recording of vital signs and enquiry regarding nausea, vomiting and delusions. Comparison of quantitative variables was done using unpaired T-test and comparison of qualitative variables was done using Chi-square test. RESULTS Post-anaesthesia shivering was observed in 5% of patients in the ketamine group compared to 32.5% in the ondansetron group, the result being highly significant with a P value of <0.01. There was also significant difference between the two groups in terms of hypotension and sedation (P value <0.01), but no significant difference with respect to delusions (P value of 0.4969). CONCLUSION Ketamine in the dose of 0.25 mg/kg given intravenously caused decreased shivering compared to ondansetron in the dose of 4 mg in ASA I patients undergoing caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia.
