A comparison between 0.25% bupivacaine and 0.25% ropivacaine in caudal anaesthesia in paediatric patients undergoing lower abdominal surgeries

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Aims and Objectives: The present study was undertaken to compare the onset time, duration of action of sensory and motor blockade and postoperative pain relief between 0.25% bupivacaine and 0.25% ropivacaine in caudal block for children undergoing lower abdominal surgeries. Method: In a double blind study, 50 patients of (age 2-8 years) ASA grade I and II were randomly allocated in two equal groups to received 0.75ml/ kg of either 0.25% bupivacaine (Group I) or 0.25% ropivacaine (Group II) via caudal epidural route. Caudal block was performed in all patients after induction of anesthesia with sevoflurane and oxygen. All the results were tabulated and analyzed statistically. For all statistical analysis, the level of significance was P 0.05. Results: There were statistically no significant difference between the groups, in respect of quality of sensory block and quality of motor block (p > 0.05). The duration of motor block in group I was 142.227.77 minutes while in group II it was 120.623.51 minutes (p 0.05). The mean duration of pain relief was 241.7655.62 minutes in group I compared with 238.2 62.05 minutes in group II (p>0.05). The mean pain score of patients in both groups were comparable. Conclusion: Bupivacaine and Ropivacaine provides almost similar duration of pain relief postoperatively but ropivacaine provides less motor blockade as compared to bupivacaine, making it a suitable agent for day care surgery with increase safety margin particularly in younger children.