A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CLONIDINE VERSUS NALBUPHINE AS INTRATHECAL ADJUVANTS TO 0.5% HYPERBARIC BUPIVACAINE DURING LOWER ABDOMINAL SURGERIES – A RANDOMIZED DOUBLE BLIND INTERVENTIONAL STUDY.

Background: Regional anesthesia techniques for gynecological procedures are on increasing trends due to their advantage of postoperative analgesia owing to intrathecal adjuvants. The present study was aimed to comparatively evaluate the clinical efficacy of clonidine with nalbuphine when co-administered intrathecally with 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine for Lower abdominal surgeries in Gynecology. Methods: With institutional ethics committee clearance No. 193MC/EC/2018, randomized, double blind study was conducted. After obtaining informed written consent total of 84 patients scheduled for lower abdominal surgeries were randomly allocated into two groups: Group A (n=42) - Inj.  3.5 ml Bupivacaine 0.5% + 0.2 ml Clonidine(30µg) intrathecally.  Group B (n=42) - Inj.3.5 ml Bupivacaine 0.5%+0.2 ml Nalbuphine(2mg) intrathecally. The characteristics of sensory and motor block, hemodynamic data, side effects were recorded. Results: The onset of sensory block was earlier in Group B than Group A (3.08±0.52 min vs 4.00±0.54 min, p<0.001 ). The onset of motor block was also earlier in Group B than Group A (7.78±0.80 min vs 8.80±0.95min, p<0.001). The time to first rescue analgesia in patients receiving intrathecal clonidine was significantly delayed than patients receiving intrathecal nalbuphine (284.95 ± 12.93 min vs 211.52 ± 15.92 min, p<0.001). Introperative hemodynamic changes were comparable and none of the patient suffered from respiratory depression except very little cases of shivering which are not significant. Conclusions: Intrathecal clonidine as adjuvant to bupivacaine provided was clinically more effective than nalbuphine for prolonging the duration of analgesia for gynecological procedures. Keywords: Bupivacaine, Clonidine, Lower abdominal surgeries in gynecology, Nalbuphine, Subarachnoid block.