Comparative Study between Bupivacaine-Dexmedetomidine versus Bupivacaine-Dexamethasone in Skin Infiltration as Post-Operative Analgesia for Patients undergoing Abdominoplasty Surgeries

Abstract

Background Poorly controlled acute pain after abdominal surgery is related to somatic pain signals derived from the abdominal wall and is associated with a variety of unwanted postoperative consequences, including patient suffering, distress, respiratory complications, delirium, myocardial ischemia, prolonged hospital stay, an increased likelihood of chronic pain, increased consumption of analgesics, delayed bowel function and increase the requirement for rescue analgesics. Appropriate pain treatment protocols to reduce postoperative morbidity, improve the results of the surgery and decrease hospital costs. Aim of the Work To compare skin infiltration with bupivacaine‐dexmedetomidine mixture versus bupivacaine‐dexamethasone mixture for analgesia in abdominoplasty under general anesthesia. Patients and Methods A prospective randomized clinical trial study was conducted in Ain Shams university hospital on 40 adult patients undergoing Abdominoplasty surgeries. The patients were randomly divided into two groups using their computer‐generated random numbers will be enrolled in group I for bupivacaine‐dexmedetomidine and group II for bupivacaine‐dexamethasone. Results This study demonstrated that the addition of dexmedetomidine to wound infiltration with local anesthetics improves postoperative pain and reduces the need for analgesics. Conclusion Wound infiltration with bupivacaine ‐dexmedetomidine mixture provides prolonged local anesthetic effect, decreases the need for rescue analgesics, and provides better sedation than bupivacaine‐dexamethasone mixture in patients undergoing Abdominoplasty surgeries.