anaesthesia, morbid obesity and patients with coagulation abnormalities.

After all routine investigations and complete preanaesthetic checkup, all the patients in the study were hydrated with 10ml/kg Ringer’s lactate intravenously before the procedure.

The study population was randomly divided into 2 groups with 30 patients in each group , Group B received 13ml of 0.5% bupivacaine with 2ml (100 mcg) of fentanyl (total volume-15ml) and Group L recieved 13ml of 0.5% levobupivacaine with 2ml (100 mcg) of fentanyl (total volume-15ml) .

Under all aseptic precautions patient’s back was painted and draped. An 18 G Touhy’s epidural needle was introduced into L3-L4 epidural space using loss of resistance to air technique. Epidural catheter was inserted 4 cm into the epidural space and 3ml of 2% lignocaine with adrenaline was given as a test dose. Continuous cardiopulmonary monitoring was done and the study drug was injected into the epidural space. The time of administration of the study drug was considered as zero time to assess the duration of blockade.

The baseline values of haemodynamic parameters( heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure) oxygen saturation ( SpO2 ) were recorded and the above parameters were monitored every 5 minutes until 30 minutes of epidural drug administration and every 30 minutes thereafter till the completion of the surgical procedure.The various complications (nausea, vomiting,hypotension,urinary retention,arrhythmia and pruritus) were assessed perioperatively.