Effect of Adding Dexamethasone to Bupivacaine in Ultrasound Guided Adductor Canal Block For Post-operative Analgesia Following Knee Arthroscopy

Abstract

examethasone improves the quality and duration of peripheral nerve block when used as an adjuvant to local anaesthetic. We evaluated the effect of adding dexamethasone to bupivacaine on the duration of postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing knee arthroscopy using ultrasound-guided adductor canal block. The study was a randomized, double-blinded trial. 90 patients scheduled for Knee arthroscopy were randomly allocated into two groups to receive adductor canal block. The control group received 18 mL bupivacaine 0.25% + 2 mL normal saline, and the dexamethasone group received 18 mL bupivacaine 0.25% + 2 mL dexamethasone (8 mg). Measurements included visual analog score, time to first analgesic requirement, analgesic consumption. There was a highly statistically significant difference between groups according to analgesic duration (time of first call for analgesics) (min) with p-value (p<0.001). The highest value was found in group A(study) and group B(control) (241.02±36.15 and 188.49±28.27) respectively, this indicates that that the needs of analgesic in the group B were earlier compared to group A.