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The Efficacy of Intrathecal Dexmedetomidine versus Fentanyl on Postoperative Pain: A Retrospective Study

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND AND AIMS: For many surgical procedures, spinal anesthesia is a reliable and efficient anesthetic approach. Numerous drugs have been reported to be administered to intrathecal local anesthetics as adjuvants to increase the efficacy of spinal anes-thesia. There is little evidence of the effect of intrathecal dexmedetomidine on pain scores and the consumption of analgesia postoperatively. METHODS: After obtaining ethical approval, demographical and clinical data of patients who underwent surgical procedures under spinal anesthesia with intrathecal dexmedetomidine or fentanyl was collected and analyzed. RESULTS: In this study with 96 patients, intrathecal dexmedetomidine (group D) resulted in significantly lower post-operative pain scores com-pared to intrathecal fentanyl (group F) (p=0.000). Across various surgical types, including Orthopedic, General, Urology, and Obs/Gyne procedures, group D consistently displayed reduced pain scores (p <0.001). The number of patients who needed post-operative analgesia was significantly higher in group (F) than in group (D) (40 vs 23, P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Compared to fentanyl, intrathecal dexmedetomidine as an adjuvant to local anesthesia was found to lower post-operative pain scores and decrease the need for post-operative analgesia.

Source: Annals of African Medicine

DOI: 10.4103/aam.aam_227_25