Sixty boys, aged 1-10 yr, undergoing orchidopexy were allocated randomly to receive one of three solutions for caudal extradural injection. Group A received 0.25% bupivacaine 1 ml kg-1 with adrenaline 5 micrograms ml-1 (1/200,000), group C received 0.25% bupivacaine 1 ml kg-1 with clonidine 2 micrograms kg-1 and group K received 0.25% bupivacaine 1 ml kg-1 with ketamine 0.5 mg kg-1. Postoperative pain was assessed using a modified objective pain score and analgesia was administered if this score exceeded 4. The median duration of caudal analgesia was 12.5 h in group K compared with 5.8 h in group C (P < 0.05) and 3.2 h in group A (P < 0.01). There were no differences between the groups in the incidence of motor block, urinary retention or postoperative sedation.