Analgesic and safety analysis of dexmedetomidine combined with ropivacaine in ultrasound-guided brachial plexus nerve block

Purpose: To investigate analgesic effect and safety of dexmedetomidine combined with ropivacaine in ultrasound-guided brachial plexus block in intercostal space. Methods: A total of 90 patients were scheduled to undergo upper limb surgery and divided into control and study groups, respectively. Patients in control group were given ropivacaine nerve block, while those in study group were given ropivacaine combined with dexmedetomidine mixture nerve block. The efficiency of sensory and motor block, secondary evaluation of block effect, visual analogue scale (VAS) scores at different postoperative moments, remedial analgesia and adverse reactions were compared between the two groups after 30 min of drug injection. Results: The success rate of sensory block was not significantly different between control group (91.11 %) and study group (93.33 %; chi(2) = 0.155, p > 0.05) but success rate of the motor block was significantly higher in study group (93.33 %) than in control group (71.11 %; chi(2) = 7.601, p < 0.05). Compared with control group, onset of sensory block and motor block were significantly shorter in study group, while the duration of sensory block and motor block was significantly longer (p < 0.05). The VAS scores at 12, 24, and 48 h postoperatively were significantly lower in study group than control group (p < 0.05). The number of self-administered analgesia, number of patients, dose used, and overall incidence of adverse reactions in study group were significantly lower than in control group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Dexmedetomidine and ropivacaine, when administered together, have a significant anesthetic effect during nerve block, which is safe and enhances their analgesic effect. However, the mechanism of improving analgesic effect of the combined plan, using a larger number of samples should be further investigated.