A study to evaluate the effectiveness of clonidine vs atenolol in providing optimal surgical field in nasal surgeries under general anaesthesia

Abstract

Aim: The present study was done to evaluate the role of oral clonidine and atenolol in providing optimal surgical field in nasal surgeries under general anaesthesia. Material and methods: 60 patients of ASA grade I & II posted for elective nasal surgeries were randomly divided into two groups of 30 each. Patients received 50 mg oral atenolol in group A and 100 ug oral clonidine in group B two hours prior to surgery. Induction and maintainence of anaesthesia was performed by the same standard protocol. Heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were recorded during the intra-operative and post-operative period. The surgeon, blinded to group allocation, evaluated the quality of surgical field using a predefined Average Category Scale (ACS). The amount of total blood loss was also recorded. Results: The heart rate and blood pressure were within normal range from induction to the end of the surgery in the both groups. However the difference in blood loss between groups was highly significant being less in group B (117.77 ± 7.59 ml) as compared to group A (155.73 ± 14.90 ml). This resulted in a better surgical field in group B compared to group A. Conclusion: We conclude that oral clonidine is better than atenolol in providing optimal surgical field in nasal surgeries under general anaesthesia. © 2014 Singh A, et al.