A Prospective Randomized study comparing the efficacy and clinical profile of dexmedetomidine and fentanyl as an adjuvant to epidural ropivacaine for postoperative pain relief in spine surgeries

Spine surgeries are commonly associated with moderate tosevere postoperative pain which remains a great challenge for the anaesthesiologist to treat it. Multimodal analgesic techniques like parenteral analgesics or regional analgesia are commonly practiced.Use of intrathecal opioids before surgical closure provide effective postoperative analgesia without any major side effects.This study was designed to compare the analgesic efficacy of Ropivacaine and Dexmedetomidine (RD) with Ropivacaine and Fentanyl (RF) by giving these drugs by epidural administration in patients undergoing elective spine surgeries. Concluded from this study that epidural route provided adequate analgesia in both groups. However,Dexmedetomidine seems to be a better alternative toFentanyl as it provides early onset and establishment of sensory anesthesia, prolonged postoperative analgesia, lowerconsumption of postoperative rescue analgesia,comparablestable hemodynamics, andmuch better sedation levels