Decrease in pain of propofol injection after oral clonidine

To assess the potential of oral Clonidine premedication in decreasing patient discomfort during the injection of Propofol. This was a comparative study of 80 ASA class 1 and II. Place and Duration of study: This study was carried out at Combined Military Hospital, Kharian. This was a study of 80 ASA class 1 and 2 patients of similar age group. Patients selected were from amongst those undergoing elective gynaecological surgery, specifically Diagnostic Dilatation and Curettage. These patients were selected by non-probability convenience sampling. The patients were randomly assigned, by means of a random table, to one of the two groups of 40 patients each. Group [A] patients were given oral Clonidine, 300 mg two hours before induction of anaesthesia by Propofol injection. Group [B] patients were given 0.01 to 0.02 mg/kg plain Lidocaine just before Propofol induced anaesthesia. Non-invasive systolic arterial blood pressure [ni-SBP], non-invasive diastolic arterial blood pressure, [ni-DBP] and heart rate were recorded in the ward about 120 min [before administration of oral Clonidine in group -A] in both groups. Measurements were repeated in the operating theatre before induction of anaesthesia. Patients in group-B were not premedicated with Clonidine. They were injected 0.01 to 0.02 mg/kg injection plain lidocaine, through the injection port of an 18-gauge cannula, as premedication just before propofol monitoring was done as for group -A. Before administration of propofol, the patient was requested to rate immediately any sensation of pain during injection as non [0], mild [1] moderate[2] or severe [3], also called the Verbal Rating Scale [VRS]. The results showed both groups to have similar pain score, and differences were deemed statistically not significant by the analysis. Our results imply that Clonidine makes an excellent premedication with Propofol for short gynaecological procedures