Comparison of Duration of Spinal Anesthesia with Lidocaine or Lidocaine plus Epinephrine between Addicts and Non-addicts

Background: duration of spinal anesthesia depends on the type of anesthetic agent, dosage and additive materials such as epinephrine, ephedrine and opioid. we compared the duration of spinal anesthesia with lidocaine 5% with or without epinephrine in addict and non-addict patients undergoing inferior limb fracture surgery. methods: this single blinded randomized clinical trial was performed on 201 males (height ranged 150-180 cm) who referred to the shahid bahonar hospital of kerman for the inferior limb fracture. their physical class was matched to the american association standard class 1 and 2, and they were appropriate candidates for the spinal anesthesia. the addict or non-addict groups were each divided into two subgroups. 75 mg of 5% lidocaine was prescribed for one subgroup, and the other subgroup received 75 mg of 5% lidocaine plus 0.2 mg epinephrine. the level of primary anesthesia was elevated to t6. duration of returning to the 4 primary sensory levels was measured since baseline. findings: a significant increase in the duration of anesthesia level in both addict and non-addict patients receiving lidocaine plus epinephrine was observed compared to the subgroups receiving lidocaine alone (p < 0.01). duration of decrease in sensory level in addict subgroups receiving lidocaine or lidocaine plus epinephrine was lower compared to non-addict patients (p < 0.001). in addict subgroup receiving lidocaine alone, a significant decrease was observed in the time needed for decrease in sensory level (p < 0.01). conclusion: according to the results of this study, regardless of the anesthetic agent being used, duration of spinal anesthesia was shorter in addict patients compared to non-addict ones. addition of epinephrine to lidocaine 5% increased the duration of spinal anesthesia in both addict and non-addict patients