• Anesthesiology · Jun 1998

    Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial

    Treatment of incomplete analgesia after placement of an epidural catheter and administration of local anesthetic for women in labor.

    • Y Beilin, J Zahn, H H Bernstein, B Zucker-Pinchoff, W J Zenzen, and L A Andres.
    • Department of Anesthesiology and Obstetrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA. ybeilin@smtplink.mssm.edu
    • Anesthesiology. 1998 Jun 1;88(6):1502-6.

    BackgroundApproximately 15% of women still have pain after placement of an epidural catheter and administration of local anesthetic for labor analgesia. Two techniques frequently used to treat this pain were compared: (1) withdrawal of the catheter 1 cm and repeated dosing with additional local anesthetic, and (2) repeated dosing with additional local anesthetic without any catheter manipulation.MethodsFifteen minutes after placement of a multiple-orifice epidural catheter 5 cm into the epidural space and administration of 13 ml 0.25% bupivacaine to the parturient in labor, the adequacy of analgesia was assessed. All women who had incomplete analgesia were randomized (first intervention) to receive an additional 5 ml 0.25% bupivacaine (local-anestheticonly group) or to receive 5 ml 0.25% bupivacaine after first withdrawing the epidural catheter 1 cm (catheter-manipulation group). If after 15 min the woman still had pain, then (second intervention) the catheter was withdrawn 1 cm and an additional 5 ml 0.25% bupivacaine was administered to the local-anesthetic-only group, whereas 5 ml 0.25% bupivacaine was given to the catheter-manipulation group without further catheter manipulation. The success rate of the second intervention was assessed 15 min later.ResultsSeventy-eight women were enrolled in the study, 39 to each group. In the local-anesthetic-only group, 29 (74%) women were successfully treated with the first intervention and the remaining 10 (100%) were successfully treated with the second intervention. In the catheter-manipulation group, 30 (77%) were successfully treated with the first intervention and 7 (100%; 2 patients were not studied because of investigator error) were successfully treated with the second intervention (P=NS).ConclusionsAdministration of additional local anesthetic without first withdrawing the epidural catheter will effectively treat most women for whom analgesia is incomplete after the placement of an epidural catheter during labor.

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