Prolongation of Spinal Anesthesia with T-Cain by Epinephrine and Clonidine

Choe, Hyeon Gyu; Shin, Gam Jin; Lee, Sang Kyi; Han, Young Jin; Song, He Sun

Abstract

Vasoconstrictors such as epinephrine or phenylephrine have been used as an adjunct to local anesthetics to prolong the duration of spinal anesthesia. Recently, clonidine, an areceptor agonist, has been proved to have analgesic effect and to prolong epidural and spinal anesthesia. We used 0.3mg of epinephrine, 75 ug and 150 ug of clonidine in spinal anesthesia with 12 mg of T-Cain respectively and compared hemodynamic and analgesic effects of each drug. Heart rate and blood pressure were checked before, during and after anesthesia. Sensory level was checked by pin-prick method and motor blockade was measured by Bromages scale. The results were as follows. 1) Heart rate changed little in the epinephrine group and decreased significantly in all other groups.2) Systolic blood pressure decreased significantly in all groups except the epinephrine group. Both 75 ug and 150 ug of clonidine caused a significant fall in diastolic pressure. 3) The onset time for sensory and motor blockade varied little among all groups. 4) Sensory blockade was significantly higher in the 150 ug of clonidine group than the control group. Time to achieve the maximum level of sensory blockade was significantly faster in control group than 150 ug of clonidine group. 5) The duration of sensory and motor blockade was significantly prolonged in epinephrine and clonidine group than control group. The results indicate that clonidine, when used as an adjunct to T-Cain spinal anesthesia, is as effective as epinephrine in prolongation of motor and sensory blockade.