Combination Dexamethasone Reduces Pain, Enhances Nerve Block Duration Compared With Systemic Dex Alone

 

The combination of systemic and perineural dexamethasone improved pain scores and decreased opioid requirements after compared with systemic dexamethasone alone, a new study shows. According to the data, when combined with systemic dexamethasone (8 mg), perineural dexamethasone (4 mg) also improved pulmonary function in patients postoperatively compared with control.

“When bupivacaine is administered as an intercostal nerve block in the presence of systemic dexamethasone, patients are probably getting around 20 hours of pain relief,” said Dermot P. Maher, MD, MS, pain medicine fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in Boston. “But if you add [perineural] dexamethasone to that mixture, they get around 24 to 28 hours of relief...

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