Abstract
Introduction: Post dural puncture
headache (PDPH) is an important
complication of spinal anesthesia,
especially in young parturient women after
cesarean section. The usage of
glucocorticoids such as dexamethasone is a
drug suggested to treat PDPH. The aim of
this study was to determine the effect, of
intravenous dexamethasone in prevention
of PDPH after spinal anesthesia in cesarean
section.
Materials & Methods: This is a doubleblind
randomized clinical trial in which 246
cases of parturients candidated for cesarean
section. Patients were divided randomly in
6 equal groups(n=41) according to the
number of punctures (1, 2 or > 2 punctures)
and administration of 8 mg intravenous
dexamethasone. All the patients received
spinal anesthesia using 75 mg of 5%
lidocaine with a 25G quincke needle. Then,
thepatientqs age,history of surgery,previous
spinal anesthesia and headache,new onset
and duration of PDPH and vital signes of
patients were recorded. Finally the obtained
data were analyzied by SPSS software.
Findings: 44(17.9%) patients out of the
246 ones were affected by headache. 12.2%
of patients who had received
dexamethasone and 23.6% of patients who
had not received it suffered from
headache,(p-v= 0.030)/ The frequency of
hypotension during surgery in patients who
had received dexamethasone and those who
had not received it were 63.4% and 76.4%,
respectedly, (P-v=0.037).
Discussion & Conclusion:
Administration of intravenous prophylactic
dexamethasone caused a significantly
decrease in the incidence of PDPH &
intraoperative hypotension.So, we suggest
the use of 8mg intravenous dexamethasone
in susceptive patients for prevention of
PDPH.
Manuchehrian N, Arjomandi M, Bakhshaeu M, Hajian P, Alipur N, Farhanchi A. Efficacy of Prophylactic Intravenous Dexamethasone in. J. Ilam Uni. Med. Sci. 2012; 19 (4) :1-11 URL: http://sjimu.medilam.ac.ir/article-1-564-en.html