Abstract

Epidural anesthesia is a widely used technique for perioperative analgesia in different kinds of surgeries. This study was designed to compare plain bupivacaine with bupivacaine and ketamine combination with respect to potency of anaesthesia and post operative analgesia in patients undergoing infra umbilical surgeries, with side effects of both groups. Methods: A total of 50 American Society of Anesthesiologists 1 and 2 patients, aged 20–60 years, undergoing elective lower abdominal surgeries, were randomized into two groups. Group B received epidural 0.125% 6 ml Inj bupivacaine Group BK received epidural 0.125% 6 ml inj bupivacaine with inj ketamine (0.5mg/kg). Safety and efficacy of ketamine in epidural analgesia, haemodynamic changes, quality of postoperative analgesia and any untoward effects of ketamine were compared. Results: The demographic and hemodynamic parameters were comparable between the two groups. There was prolonged duration of anesthesia and better postoperative pain management with bupivacaine and ketamine group as compared to bupivacaine only group. Conclusions: With new developments in medical science and surgery, it is necessary to bring into practice a new pharmacological approach to manage post-operative pain.[49] Ketamine is one such effective analgesic adjuvant which can be used in epidural blocks in combination with local anaesthetics, considering the positive results we received during our study and magnitude of side effects was acceptable and easily treatable.

Description