Background Shivering is known to be a frequent complication in patients undergoing surgery under neuraxial anesthesia with incidence of 40–70%. Although many pharmacological agents have been used to treat or prevent postspinal anesthesia shivering (PSAS), the ideal treatment wasn’t found. This study evaluated the efficacy of paracetamol and dexamethasone to prevent PSAS in patients undergoing lower abdominal and lower limb surgeries. Methods Three hundred patients scheduled for surgeries under spinal anesthesia (SA) were allocated into three equal groups to receive a single preoperative dose of oral paracetamol 1 g (P group), dexamethasone 8 mg intravenous infusion (IVI) in 100 ml normal saline (D group) or placebo (C group), 2 h preoperatively, in a randomized, double-blind trial. The primary endpoint was the incidence of clinically significant PSAS. Secondary endpoints included shivering score, the change in hemodynamics, adverse events (e.g., nausea, vomiting and pruritis) and patients` satisfaction. Results Clinically significant PSAS was recorded as (15%) in P group, (40%) in D group and (77%) in C group (P < 0.001). The mean blood pressure values obtained over a 5-25 min observation period were significantly higher in the D group (P < 0.001). Core temperature 90 min after SA was significantly lower in the 3 groups compared to prespinal values (P < 0.001). Nausea, vomiting and pruritis were significantly higher in the C group (P < 0.001). P and D groups were superior to C group regarding the patients’ satisfaction score (P < 0.001). Conclusion Paracetamol and dexamethasone were effective in prevention of PSAS in patients undergoing lower abdominal and lower limb surgeries compared to placebo controls. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03679065 / Registered 20 September 2018 - Retrospectively registered, http://www.ClinicalTrial.gov.

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The efficient design of the supply chain network is crucial for good performance and robust functionality. In this paper, the facility location-allocation problem in the strategic stage of the supply chain planning is addressed. The facility location decision is studied for a 4-layer supply chain, with location decision in 2 layers (plants and distribution centers). The study incorporates tactical decisions along with the facility location decision. These include planning inventory levels, flow of products, and position of the customer order decoupling points. The decisions are studied on a multi-period (dynamic) planning horizon, and the problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model with profit maximization objective. The model is tested on a number of generated instances for the problem, and the optimum solutions are obtained and discussed.

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