The Effects of Dexamethasone on Low Dose Interscalene Brachial Plexus Block

Summary

A standard interscalene nerve block is performed with long acting local anesthetic (bupivacaine or ropivacaine in concentrations varying from 0.25% to 0.75%). The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the addition of perineural dexamethasone (4mg) to a standard ropivacaine solution (0.5%) on analgesic duration of low dose interscalene block compared to ropivacaine alone for interscalene block with systemic dexamethasone. Ropivacaine is not an intervention as a local anesthetic is pre-requisite to performing a nerve block.

Timeline

Start

2015-01

Primary completion

2019-01

Completion

2019-05

Outcome

Missed primary endpoint

paper For the primary outcome, duration of analgesia, and perineural and i.v. administration of dexamethasone were not equivalent. PMID 31591018 ↗

paper The upper and lower bounds of the 90% confidence interval were 1 h (P=0.12) and -2.5 h (P=0.01), respectively. PMID 31591018 ↗

Publications

• McHardy PG, Singer O, Awad IT, Safa B, Henry PDG, Kiss A, Au SK, Kaustov L, Choi S. Comparison of the effects of perineural or intravenous dexamethasone on low volume interscalene brachial plexus block: a randomised equivalence trial. Br J Anaesth. 2020 Jan;124(1):84-91. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2019.08.025. Epub 2019 Oct 5.

Drugs

Evaluation	Drug	Modality	Dose	Route
Subject	Dexamethasone	Small molecule	4 mg	Intravenous

Indications

No indication recorded.