A Prospective Open-Label Randomized Controlled Trial to Compare Intrathecal 1% 2-Chloroprocaine Versus 0.5% Bupivacaine in Ambulatory Elective Surgeries

BACKGROUND: For an outpatient surgery, an ideal anesthetic drug should have a faster onset and shorter duration of action and minimal side effects. Although Bupivacaine is a drug of choice in spinal anesthesia but is not suitable for ambulatory surgeries. We aimed to compare 1% 2-chloroprocaine (2-CP) which is considered to be a short-acting agent with 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine as a spinal anesthetic agent in ambulatory surgeries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study includes a prospective analysis of 60 patients who underwent ambulatory surgeries of <60 min and were randomly divided into two groups of 30 each: Group I – intrathecal injection of preservative-free formulation of 1% 2-CP 40 mg (4 mL) given and Group II – intrathecal injection of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine 10 mg (2.0 mL) given time to reach surgical anesthesia, time for resolution of motor block, time for end of anesthesia, time to requirement of first postoperative analgesic, time to unassisted ambulation, time for micturition, and time to reach discharge readiness criteria, which were recorded. RESULTS: We observed that in the CP group, onset time is early and there was more fast regression of surgical anesthesia in the CP group resulting in less time required for unassisted ambulation and less time for discharge from the hospital. CONCLUSION: We concluded that 2-CP can be used for spinal anesthesia in shorter duration surgeries with early recovery from anesthesia and hence early discharge from the hospital.