en Clinical Medicine Clinical Medicine مقاله پژوهشی Original Research Article <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="color:#008080;"><strong>Background & Objective: </strong></span>Dexamethasone has been emerged as an adjuvant to local anesthetics to provide optimal analgesia. We have evaluated the postoperative analgesic efficacy of adding a low dose dexamethasone to bupivacaine in ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric blocks in patients undergoing inguinal herniorraphy under spinal anesthesia.<br> <span style="color:#008080;"><strong>Materials & Methods: </strong></span>50 patients in the range of 20 - 80 years of age underwent elective surgery for the purpose of inguinal hernia repair under spinal anesthesia recruited in a prospective, double-blinded, randomized manner. At the end of the surgery, the patients received an ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric block through the direct injection of drugs around nerves. Patients in the control group received bupivacaine 0.5% (2 cc) plus normal saline 1 cc (group C), and the dexamethasone group received bupivacaine 0.5% (2 cc) plus 4 mg (1 cc) dexamethasone (group D). The pain intensity was measured using the VAS scale at1, 2, 4, 12, and 24 hours after surgery.<br> <span style="color:#008080;"><strong>Results: </strong></span>The mean time of analgesic duration in group C (3.6&plusmn;3.8 hr) was greater than group D (1.6&plusmn;1.14 hr). This difference was statistically significant (P =0.043). The pain intensity 2 hours after surgery in group D was higher than in group C (median with IQR: 3&plusmn;4 vs. 2&plusmn;2; P=0.007). The difference in the total analgesic consumption in group D (51.1&plusmn;32.4 mg) versus group C (26.4&plusmn;33.8 mg) was significant (P=0.018).<br> <span style="color:#008080;"><strong>Conclusion:</strong></span> The addition of 4 mg dexamethasone to bupivacaine in an ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric block at the end of surgery in patients undergoing inguinal herniorraphy under spinal anesthesia failed to prolong the time to the first analgesic request. It provides only a minor analgesic effect 12 hours following surgery.</span></span></p> Dexamethasone, Inguinal herrniorraphy, Ilioinguinal nerve, Iliohypogastric nerve, Pain 16 22 http://journal.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-4785-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Hamid Kayalha h_kayalha@yahoo.com 5200319475328460048589 5200319475328460048589 No Rajaee Clinical Research Development Unit, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran Somayeh Ahmadi Gooraji ahmadisomayeh90@gmail.com 5200319475328460048590 5200319475328460048590 No Metabolic Disease Research Center, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran Hossein Parsa hparsa@qums.ac.ir 5200319475328460048591 5200319475328460048591 No Dept. of Biostatistics, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan, Iran Marzieh Beigom Khezri mkhezri@qums.ac.ir 5200319475328460048592 5200319475328460048592 Yes Rajaee Clinical Research Development Unit, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran