RESUMEN
Caudal block is most popular regional anesthetic technique used in children. It provides excellent analgesia duringsurgery as well as in postoperative period in subumblical surgeries. In this study, we compared the analgesic efficacyand safety of caudal dexmedetomidine added to caudal ropivacaine for postoperative analgesia in children. 60patients aged 1 to 8 years scheduled for subumblical surgeries were randomly allocated into two groups of 30 patientseach. Group RD received 1ml/kg of 0.2% ropivacaine with dexmedetomidine 2ìg/Kg in normal saline 1 ml. Group Rreceived 1ml/kg of 0.2% ropivacaine with normal saline 1ml.Hemodynamic parameters, duration of analgesia, painscores using observational pain scoring (OPS), requirement of rescue analgesia, and various complications wererecorded.The duration of analgesia in group R was 8.4± 1.4 hours while in group RD the duration was 10.4 ± 2 hours.Maximum OPS scores were lower in group RD compared to group R.It was concluded that caudal dexmedetomidinewhen added to ropivacaine as an adjuvant increases the efficacy and duration of analgesia, reducing the need of postoperative rescue analgesia with no additional side effects.