Anaesthesia
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Review Meta Analysis
Effect of intravenous dexamethasone on postoperative pain after spinal anaesthesia - a systematic review with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis.
There are data suggesting that intravenous dexamethasone has an effect on postoperative analgesia when given during single-shot spinal anaesthesia. However, the research literature is equivocal. We performed a systematic literature search followed by conventional meta-analysis (random effects model). ⋯ The time to first analgesic request (95%CI) was significantly prolonged by 86.62 (10.62-162.62) min, I2 = 93%, in the dexamethasone group. For other secondary outcomes including number of patients requiring rescue analgesia, or visual analogue scale pain scores, we found no evidence of a significant difference between the treatment arms. We report a high level of evidence that intravenous dexamethasone improves postoperative analgesia after spinal anaesthesia.