A prospective study of blocking T10-L1 with local anaesthetic, bilaterally in 30 patients undergoing caesarean section under general anaesthesia has been shown to provide effective postoperative analgesia thus requiring significantly less narcotics (mean 66.6 mg of pethidine) compared to the 30 patients in the control group (mean 163 mg of pethidine). A cocktail of 0.5% of bupivacaine with adrenaline and xylocaine 1% produced analgesia for the duration ranging from 8 to 12 hours (mean 8.4 hours). Patients with abdominal field block were awake, alert and comfortable during the immediate postoperative period. They were pain-free sufficiently to put the babies to the breast early and frequently.
The 'Priming principle' applied to non-depolarizing muscle relaxant atracurium was studied in 60 patients. This was a double blind study. The conditions observed for intubation were graded and the efficacy of priming dose of atracurium for shortening the onset time of intubation was studied. The patients were of ASA classification I and II and received standard premedication. The purpose of the study was to use the priming dose of atracurium to shorten the onset time of intubating dose of atracurium. This would be desirable in conditions requiring rapid intubation and in situations when the depolarizing muscle relaxant suxamethonium is contra-indicated. The results were statistically significant.