COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROPIVACAINE WITH CLONIDINE AND ROPIVACAINE ALONE IN SUPRACLAVICULAR BRACHIAL PLEXUS BLOCK

Background: Brachial plexus block provides minimal systemic impairment and excellent localized postoperative analgesia for upper extremity surgery. LA’s such as lignocaine, bupivacaine and ropivacaine are widely used along with adjuvant to improve the quality, onset and duration of block and to decrease postoperative analgesic requirement and systemic side effects. Adjuvant like α-2 agonist (Clonidine), opioids etc. are been added to LA’s. Clonidine is an imidazoline derivative with α-2 adrenergic agonistic activity. There has been seen a potentially clear synergism between clonidine and ropivacaine in various regional block anaesthesia. Material and Methods: In this randomized doubled blind controlled study, a total of 60 ASA grade I or II patients were taken and randomly allocated into 2 groups comprising 30 patients in each group. Group R includes patients which were given 30ml of 0.5% ropivacaine + 2ml normal saline and in Group RC 30 ml of 0.5% ropivacaine with 2 µg/kg clonidine in 2 ml NS. Sensory function was tested using pinprick and motor with concomitant inability to move the wrist and hand and the first analgesic request was noted. Statistical Analysis: Results were expressed as mean and standard deviation. P value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Duration of sensory, motor blockage and analgesia lasted longer in Group RC than Group R. There was no statistically significant in hemodynamic parameters, side effects and complication. Conclusion: Clonidine produces faster onset and longer duration of sensory, motor blockage, analgesia without any significant side effect and complication when used as an adjuvant to ropivacaine for supraclavicular brachial plexus block.