The effect of adding intrathecal magnesium sulphate to bupivacaine-fentanyl spinal anesthesia: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

TRIAL DESIGN: The current study is a meta-analysis designed to assess the effect of adding magnesium to a combination of intrathecal bupivacaine and fentanyl. METHODS: The protocol was registered in PROSPERO with the number CRD42020177618. PubMed, Cochrane library, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched for randomized controlled trials investigating the effect of adding magnesium to a combination of intrathecal bupivacaine and fentanyl. The continuous data were presented as Ratio of means (RoM). Risk ratio (RR) along with 95% confidence interval (CI) was utilized to assess the dichotomous data. RESULTS: Ten trials were involved in the present study with 720 adult patients. Compared with control, intrathecal magnesium prolonged time to the first analgesic requirement by an estimate of 1.23 (RoM: 1.23; 95%CI: 1.13–1.33; P < .00001), prolonged adequate sensory block duration for surgery by an estimate of 1.16 (RoM: 1.16; 95%CI: 1.05–1.27; P = .003), delayed time to maximum sensory level by an estimate of 1.38 (RoM: 1.38; 95%CI: 1.07–1.78; P = .01) and reduced the incidence of shivering following spinal anesthesia (risk ratio: 0.38; 95%CI: 0.18 to 0.81, P = .01) without influence on time to full motor recovery or incidences of hypotention, bradycardia, nausea, and vomiting or pruritis. CONCLUSION: Intrathecal magnesium, when added to a combination of intrathecal bupivacaine and fentany, prolongs the analgesic duration of spinal anesthesia without increased incidences of side effects.