Background and Aims: Use of various adjuvants to local anaesthetics for spinal anaesthesia is a well known modality to provide prolonged duration of post operative analgesia. We designed this study to evaluate and compare the analgesic efficacy of intrathecal clonidine and fentanyl as an adjuvant to low dose hyperbaric bupivacaine (7.5 mg). Methods: Fifty patients of American Society of Anaesthesiologists physical status grade I/II, posted for elective lower segment caesarean section (LSCS) under spinal anaesthesia, were randomly allocated in two groups using chit in box method. Group A received 7.5 mg of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine (1.5 ml) + fentanyl 25µg (0.5 ml) and Group B received 7.5 mg of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine (1.5 ml) + clonidine 45µg (0.3 ml) + 0.2ml normal saline. We observed the duration of post operative analgesia as primary outcome variable and secondary outcome variables included onset and duration of motor and sensory block, haemodynamics and adverse effects. Results: The mean duration of analgesia was significantly (P <0.001) longer in clonidine group (212.24 + 44.34 min) as compared to the fentanyl group (175.12 + 28.27 min). Conclusion: Intrathecal Clonidine (45mcg) when used as an adjuvant to low dose of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine (7.5mg) provides prolonged post-operative analgesia along with longer duration of two segment regression as compared to fentanyl (25µg) with low dose of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine (7.5mg) without any significant adverse effects and hemodynamic alteration.
