Background: The present study was conducted for comparing caudal and intravenous dexamethasone as adjuvants for caudal epidural block. Materials &Methods: A total of 60 subjects were enrolled who were scheduled to undergo inguinal herniotomies. Complete demographic and clinical details of all the subjects was obtained. All the subjects were divided into three study groups as follows: Group A: In addition to caudal normal saline (NS) IV, patients received caudal ropivacaine 0.15% (1.5 ml/kg), Group B: In addition to caudal normal saline (NS) IV, patients received 0.15% caudal ropivacaine (1.5 ml/kg), and 0.1 mg/kg caudal dexamethasone (0.025 ml/kg), and Group C: Patients received IV dexamethasone 0.5 mg/kg (maximum 10mg) (dexamethasone sodium phosphate vial 4mg/ml), caudal ropivacaine 0.15% (1.5 mL/kg), caudal NS 0.025 ml/kg, and NS. ANOVA test and chi-square test was used for evaluation of level of significance. Results: Mean time to first rescue analgesia was 298.1 minutes, 531.8 minutes and 398.4 minutes respectively among subjects of group A, group B and group C respectively; on comparing the results were found to be statistically significant. Mean time to initiation of clear fluids among subjects of group A, group B and group C was 7.3 hours, 5.1 hours and 5.9 hours respectively; on comparing the results were found to be statistically significant. Conclusion:It can be concluded that in subjects having an inguinal hernia repaired, adding dexamethasone either caudally or intravenously as an adjuvant to caudal 0.15% ropivacaine may significantly lengthen the mean time to first rescue analgesia. Dexamethasone can also be thought of as a risk-free adjuvant to caudal block