Background: epidural approach is used to provide anaesthesia and analgesia (pain relief) in abdominal surgeries.
Objectives: To estimate total cumulative dose of post-operative rescue analgesia &
to estimate time to 1^st post-operative analgesic request.
Patients and methods: A prospective randomized double blind observational study. Conducted in Qena university hospital, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt. The study was conducted on sixty patients (ASA I or II) scheduled for major abdominal surgeries with general anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia were included. Their ages ranged between 25 and 60 years old.
Results: Regarding assessment of post-operative pain by visual analogue scale (VAS) we find that there was statistically significant difference between the three groups 24hour post-operative. there were significant difference (P<0.05) about the time to reach VAS 4 , that the time to reach VAS 4 in dexmedetomidine group is longer than the time to reach VAS 4 in Mg sulphate group than the time to reach VAS 4 in control group.
Conclusion: Epidural Dexmedetomedine and Epidural Magnesium sulphate are safe in open abdominal surgeries and effectively reducing postoperative pain with longer duration of analgesia in Dexmedetomedine group.