Please confirm that an ethics committee approval has been applied for or granted: Yes: I’m uploading the Ethics Committee Approval as a PDF file with this abstract submission

Background and Aims Caudal anesthesia is one of the most popular, reliable and safe methods of pain relief in children and can provide pain relief for various surgical procedures below the navel.

Methods Research material and methods: The subject of the study was 946 children with physical status I and II class of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), aged 0 to 12 years, who underwent elective surgeries below the navel, such as hernia repair, orchiopexy, hypospadias repair, epispadias, etc. Depending on the drug administered, the patients were divided into two groups: Group A: bupivacaine 2.5 mg/kg + saline 1.2 ml/kg. Group B: bupivacaine 2.5 mg/kg + 1 μg/kg dexmedetomidine + saline 1.2 ml/kg.

Results Research results: The duration of caudal analgesia was determined from complained of pain or the time when the first postoperative analgesia was required. The average the moment the anesthetic was injected until the moment the child first duration of postoperative caudal analgesia in patients of group A was 4.21 ± 0.88, while in patients of group B this duration was 10.18 ± 0.85 hours.

Conclusions Conclusions. Our results show that the addition of dexmedetomidine to the local anesthetic for caudal block significantly increases the duration of analgesia and reduces the need for analgesics.