AbstractBackground: Many adjuvants have been tried to improve the duration of spinal anesthesia and quality of analgesia both intraoperatively and postoperatively to overcome the disadvantages of spinal anesthesia. Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the onset and duration of sensory and motor block, hemodynamic effect, postoperative analgesia and adverse effects of dexmeditomedine or fentanyl given with hyperbaric bupivacaine for spinal anesthesia. Materials and Methods: 120 patients were divided into two groups of sixty each undergoing
lower limb and lower abdominal surgeries with ASA Grade 1 and 2. Patients were randomly allocated to receive either Group BD: 0.5% Hyperbaric Bupivacaine 15 mg + 5 g Dexmedetomidine; Group BF: 0.5% Hyperbaric Bupivacaine 15 mg + 25 g Fentanyl intrathecally. Results: Patients in dexmedetomidine group showed a significantly prolonged duration of motor and sensory block than patients in fentanyl group. Conclusions: Addition of dexmedetomidine potentiates bupivacaine spinal anesthesia by increasing significantly the duration of motor and sensory blockage with hemodynamic stability and reduced rescue analgesics as compared to fentanyl.