Dexmedetomidine and Laparoscopic Surgery

Conventionally General anaesthesia remains the choice for the majority of open abdominal surgical procedures, and regional anaesthesia is preferred only for patients who are at high risk under general anaesthesia . The main reason for selecting spinal anaesthesia as the first choice for laparoscopic cases was its advantages over general anaesthesia which include uniform total muscle relaxation, a conscious patient, economical, relatively uneventful recovery, pain free early postoperative period and the protection from potential complications of general anaesthesia. The main debatable point, however, seems to be the status of respiratory parameters among the two modes of anaesthesia during laparoscopic surgery. In this context it can be stated that spontaneous physiological respiration during spinal anaesthesia would always be better than an assisted respiration as in general anaesthesia.

The pneumo-peritoneum induced rise in intra-abdominal pressure including pressure on the diaphragm and carbon dioxide induced peritoneal irritation are the factors to be considered