Effect Intravenous Dexamethasone as an Adjuvant to Caudal Block on post operative analgesia: Prospective Cohort study design

Introduction Caudal block is by far the most commonly employed regional anesthetic techniques to maintain postoperative analgesia in pediatric urogenital surgeries. However, its short duration of action can be prolonged by adding Adjuvants. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of dexamethasone administered through intravenous on post-operative analgesia in pediatric patients who underwent infra umbilical surgeries. Method In this prospective study, sixty American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status I and II patients aged 1–7 years were randomly allocated into two groups of thirty each. Both groups were compared for the duration of postoperative analgesia and analgesic requirement. Severity of postoperative pain was measured by FLACC score. Mann –Whitney U test was used to compare the pain severity and total analgesic consumption. Independent sample t test was used for analgesia duration as well as Chi-square test was used to analyze independent categorical variables between two groups and a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result Analgesia duration was significantly prolonged in caudal block with IV dexamethasone group than caudal block with bupivacaine alone group ( P < 0.001). Total analgesia consumption was significantly lower ( P < 0.001) in caudal block with IV dexamethasone compared to with bupivacaine alone group. Postoperative severity of pain was significantly lower in caudal block with IV dexamethasone group at 4 th , 6 th and 12 th hours (P<0.001, P<0.001 and P<0.003) respectively. Conclusion Addition of intravenous dexamethasone as an adjuvant to caudal block with 0.25% Bupivacaine significantly reduced the intensity of post-operative pain and prolonged the duration of post-operative analgesia.