Low-dose epidural dexmedetomidine improves thoracic epidural anaesthesia for nephrectomy.
Thoracic epidural anaesthesia alone is an applied technique of anaesthesia for nephrectomy which has both advantages and limitations. Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective alpha2-adrenoreceptor agonist which has both central and peripheral analgesic properties. Forty patients undergoing nephrectomy were enrolled in this clinical trial and allocated randomly to two groups, a control group (C group) and a dexmedetomidine group (D group). The C group received epidural 0.75% levobupivacaine 12 ml with 1 ml of isotonic sodium chloride solution, while the D group received epidural 0.75% levobupivacaine 12 ml with 1 ml (0.5 µg/kg) of dexmedetomidine. Haemodynamic changes, onset time and duration of sensory and motor block, muscle relaxation score, verbal rating score for pain, sedation score and the total postoperative analgesic consumption were evaluated. Sensory blockade duration was longer in the D group than in the C group (P=0.01). The incidence of motor block and the muscle relaxation score were significantly higher in the D group compared with the C group (P=0.01). Compared with the C group, pain scores were signiﬁcantly lower in the ﬁrst four postoperative hours in the D group (two hours rest P=0.038; two hours activity P=0.009; four hours rest P=0.044; four hours activity P=0.003). The total amount of flurbiprofen analgesic was signiﬁcantly lower in the D group compared with the C group (P=0.03). Epidural dexmedetomidine 0.5 µg/kg appears to intensify thoracic epidural anaesthesia with levobupivacaine.
['Zeng|X Z|XZ|', 'Xu|Y M|YM|', 'Cui|X G|XG|', 'Guo|Y P|YP|', 'Li|W Z|WZ|']
D000328:Adult D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural D020927:Dexmedetomidine D004311:Double-Blind Method D005260:Female D006439:Hemodynamics D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009392:Nephrectomy D011446:Prospective Studies
epidural dexmedetomidine anaesthesia adjuvants