Papers of the Week

Studies have showed that intrathecal dexmedetomidine as supplements to local anesthetics can improve the quality of the spinal anesthesia and reduce the local anesthetic requirement of spinal anesthesia for cesarean section. However, the magnitude of this effect has not been fully quantified. Therefore, we conducted the present study to investigate the ED of intrathecal hyperbaric ropivacaine with or without dexmedetomidine for cesarean section in healthy parturients. ED values obtained were compared to estimate the effect of intrathecal dexmedetomidine versus placebo on ropivacaine requirement.