Caudal anesthesia with sedation versus general anesthesia with local infiltration during pediatric cardiac catheterization: effect on perioperative hemodynamics and postoperative analgesia

Introduction
Children undergoing cardiac catheterization are usually in need for perioperative analgesia.
Aim and objective
We studied the effects of local infiltration of bupivacaine at the groin in generally anesthetized children as against caudal bupivacaine combined with dexmedetomidine–ketamine sedation on intraoperative and postoperative hemodynamics and duration of postoperative analgesia in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac catheterization.
Materials and methods
A total of 40 patients (1–7 years) were randomly assigned into one of the two groups: one group (group GI) received general anesthesia (GA) together with local infiltration using 5 ml bupivacaine 0.25% at the beginning and at the end of the procedure and the other group (group SC) received sedation by ketamine at 3 mg/kg followed by infusion at a rate of 1 mg/kg/h to maintain sedation with caudal administration of a mixture of bupivacaine 0.25% at 3 mg/kg with dexmedetomidine 0.5 mcg/kg both diluted in normal saline to a volume of 1.2 ml/kg. Hemodynamic variables (blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR)) were evaluated at T1 (baseline, after induction), T2 (10 min after local infiltration/caudal administration), T3 (at time of puncture for vascular access), T4 (10 min after emergence), T5 (1 h after the procedure), and T6 (4 h after the procedure).
Results
The severity of pain was much less in the SC group than in the GI group. FLACC pain score was evaluated at P1 (10 min after emergence), P2 (1 h after procedure), P3 (4 h after procedure), and P4 (8 h after procedure) and it was found that pain is much less in the SC group than in the GI group during the first 4 h after the procedure with significant difference between the two groups ( < 0.05).
Conclusion
Combining caudal anesthesia using bupivacaine and dexmedetomidine with ketamine sedation provided prolonged and potent analgesia with much stable perioperative hemodynamic parameters than giving general anesthesia combined with local infiltration in the setting of pediatric cardiac catheterization.