Brachial plexus block is a peripheral block commonly used for upper limb surgery. Ultrasound guided supraclavicular brachial plexus block facilitate more accurate and effective method of drug administration.

Levobupivacaine is used for this study as it has advantages of long acting and less cardiotoxic and neurotoxic. Levobupivacaine has  recently been used more for supraclavicular brachial plexus block due to the above mentioned advantages.

The idea behind using an adjuvant with local anaesthetic is to reduce the requirement of analgesics in post operative period.

Various adjuvants have been studied for prolonging the effect of supraclavicular blocks(4). Alpha 2 adrenoreceptor agonist such as clonidine and dexmedetomidine are the two most commonly used drugs. They have shown sedation, analgesia, sympatholysis,cardiac stabilization and anaesthetic sparing properties. Out of these dexmedetomidine an imidazole compoind is more selective than clonidine(eight times).Dexmedetomidine causes analgesia by its action at supraspinal (locus coeruleus) or at spinal level or even at peripheral Alpha 2 receptors by the reduction of transmission of nociceptive stimulus.(2).

This study compares the effects of two different doses of dexmedetomidine as an adjuvant added to 0.5% Levobupivacaine. In our study we are using ultrasound guided technique for supraclavicular brachial plexus block.

In this study we hypothesise that two different doses of dexmedetomidine (0.5 & 1 microgram per kg) are equallyt effective.