A Prospective Single-Blinded Randomized Comparative Study of Ropivacaine Alone Versus Ropivacaine with Dexamethasone in Adductor Block

Abstract

Background: To compare sensory effects of Ropivacaine alone and Ropivacaine along with Dexamethasone in adductor Block for post operative analgesia after lower limb surgeries. Materials and methods: A Prospective randomized single-blinded comparitive study in 60 patients randomized into two groups with 30 patients in each group who underwent lower limb surgeries and fulfilled our inclusion criteria during the study period. Results: In this study there were no statistically significant differences in demographic profile of patients in either group in terms of age, body weight, or gender ratio (p > 0.05). Onset is time from completion of injection of study drug to loss of pinprick sensation over L3, L4 dermatomes. Onset of analgesia in Ropivacaine group was 12 ± 1.70 min whereas in Ropivacaine + Dexamethasone group it was 11.53 ± 1.66 min, which was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Duration of analgesia in Ropivacaine group was 507.96 ±149.32 min whereas in Ropivacaine + Dexamethasone it is 1082.63±195.11 min, which is statistically highly significant (P<0.0001). None of the participants in this study had adverse effects after adductor block. Conclusion: We conclude that addition of Dexamethasone to 0.2% Ropivacaine for adductor canal block increases duration of analgesia significantly. But there was no difference in onset of analgesia.