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

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.

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.

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).

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.