Adjuvant dexamethasone for bupivacaine sciatic and ankle blocks: results from 2 randomized placebo-controlled trials.

Background And Objectives: Dexamethasone as a local anesthetic adjuvant has been shown to prolong the time to first postoperative pain and improve postoperative analgesia following upper-limb brachial plexus block. However, the lack of systemically administered dexamethasone in controls makes interpretation of previous studies difficult. We performed 2 prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials to test whether the addition of dexamethasone 8 mg to bupivacaine for sciatic and ankle blocks prolongs block duration, improving postoperative analgesia.