Background and Aims: For induction of anaesthesia propofol is the most widely used intravenous anaesthetic agent. The induction of anaesthesia is rapid with propofol and also is recovery .But propofol injection pain (PIP) still remains a problem.  The incidence of pain on its injection is 28-90%. The high prevalence of pain makes it necessary to find an ideal drug or drug combination to alleviate the pain on propofol injection.

The aim of this study was to compare ketamine 0.5 mg/kg intravenous (IV) infusion with dexmedetomidine 0.5mcg/kg IV infusion to alleviate PIP.

Methods: In this prospective observational study 70 patients undergoing elective surgeries under general anaesthesia were randomly enrolled to two groups. 35 patients (group K) received ketamine 0.5 mg/kg IV and 35 patients (group D) received dexmedetomidine 0.5mcg/kg in 20ml normal saline over 10 minutes. Soon after the infusion, 1% propofol 2mg/kg IV was injected over 25 seconds. The pain was assessed by asking ‘does it hurt’ every 5 seconds, until the patient lost consciousness. McCririck and Hunter scale was used for pain scoring. Statistical analysis done-using-SPSS 22 version.

Results: 97.1% of patients in group K had no PIP where as 2.9% of group D had no PIP. In the dexmedetomidine group, 17.06% had severe pain, 37.12% had moderate pain. The incidence of PIP was significantly higher in group D compared to group K (P<0.05)

Conclusion: IV ketamine infusion is more effective than IV dexmedetomidine infusion to alleviate PIP.

Keywords: Ketamine, dexmedetomidine, propofol, anaesthesia, pain.

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Dr Regimol V.Varghese

Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology,

Government Medical College, Kottayam,

Kerala, India,

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