Anesthesia & Clinical Research
Open Access

Dexamethasone: A versatile drug in anesthesia

Joint Event on 2^nd World Congress on Surgeons & 12^th International Conference on Anesthesiology and Critical Care

November 11-12, 2019 | Istanbul, Turkey

Sara Haider Malik

Pakistan

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Anesth Clin Res

Abstract :

Background & Aim: Endotracheal intubation is one of the basic prerequisites of general anesthesia. Recovery of patients is delayed due to the development of post-operative nausea, vomiting, sore throat and shivering. This study was conducted to determine role of dexamethasone for improved recovery of patients.

Methods: This randomized controlled trial was performed in the Department of Anesthesia, Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad from June to November 2018. 112 consenting patients of both genders, aged between 18 to 60 years, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) I and II, scheduled for general surgeries of 60 minutes to 180 minutes duration under general anesthesia were included. Patients with long duration surgeries, anticipated difficult airways, nasogastric tube in situ, upper respiratory tract infections, on steroid therapy and critically ill and emergency surgeries were excluded. They were randomly allocated into two groups by lottery method as dexamethasone (Group-A, n=61) or Placebo (Group-B, n=61). Post-operative nausea, vomiting, sore throat were observed at 2, 12 and 24 hours, shivering was observed at 2 hours only and patient satisfaction at 24 hours post-operatively.

Results: Group-A patients had statistically proven better outcomes at 2, 12 and 24 hours for post-operative sore throat, nausea and vomiting, shivering was controlled in 24.5% p-value (0.006). Patient satisfaction was found in 83.6% of Group-A patients.

Conclusion: Thus dexamethasone is effective drug for prevention of postoperative nausea, vomiting, sore throat and shivering in general surgical procedures thus improving patient satisfaction and their early discharge.