Abstract

Background: Various adjuvants have been used in spinal anesthesia to avoid intraoperative visceral and somatic pain and prolonged postoperative analgesia. Clonidine, partially selective α -agonist drug, is now being used as a neuraxial 2 adjuvant.
Objective: To compare the duration and quality of analgesia of clonidine and fentanyl used as adjuvants to intrathecal bupivacaine.
Materials and Methods: American Society of Anesthesiologist grade 1 and 2 patients (90 patients) were randomly divided into three groups of 30 patients each for lower limb orthopedic surgeries. Group A received intrathecal 15 mg hyperbaric bupivacaine and 1 ml normal saline, group B received 15 mg hyperbaric bupivacaine and 1 ml (50 µg) fentanyl, and group C received 15 mg hyperbaric bupivacaine and 1 ml (150 µg) clonidine. The onset and duration of sensory and motor block, quality of analgesia, and the incidence of side effects in three groups were observed and compared.
Results: Three groups were compared based on the demographic data, and the onset of sensory block at T level and 8 of motor block was compared among these groups. Significant prolongation of duration of sensory (P = 0.0000001) and motor block (P = 0.0000001) was found in group C. Significant hypotension was found in group C (P < 0.05) and the postoperative pain scoring chart (VAS chart) was 1.07 ± 0.87 in group C and 3.27 ± 0.67 in group B (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Intrathecal clonidine is associated with prolonged motor and sensory block, hemodynamic stability, and low postoperative pain score compared to fentanyl.