Individualized Timing of Analgesia and Effectiveness of Labor Analgesia

Peking University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Labor Pain; Analgesia, Obstetrical; Early Medical Intervention

Treatments: Drug: Routine epidural analgesia; Drug: Individualized epidural analgesia

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02920489

2016[1094]

ChiCTR-IPR-16007976 (Registry Identifier)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Neuraxial analgesia is the gold standard to relieve labor pain. A recent "Practice guidelines for obstetric anesthesia" suggests that neuraxial analgesia should be provided in the early stage of labor (cervical dilation < 5 cm) or on a individualized basis. The purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to investigate whether neuraxial labor analgesia administered on an individualized basis can improve analgesia quality and maternal satisfaction.

Full description

Neuraxial analgesia is the gold standard to relieve labor pain. It also helps to attenuate maternal anxiety and improve maternal satisfaction. A recent "Practice guidelines for obstetric anesthesia" suggests that neuraxial analgesia should be provided in the early stage of labor (cervical dilation < 5 cm) or, for some special patients, be provided on a individualized basis. Studies showed that, when compared with late administration, early administration of labor analgesia resulted in equivocal findings for spontaneous, instrumented, and cesarean delivery. The investigators hypothesize that neuraxial labor analgesia provided on an individualized basis will further improve analgesia quality and maternal satisfaction. The purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to investigate whether neuraxial labor analgesia administered on an individualized basis can improve analgesia quality and maternal satisfaction.

Enrollment: 200 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 36 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Nulliparas (aged 18-36 years) with single cephalic term pregnancy;
2. Plan to deliver vaginally, and are considered suitable for a trial of vaginal delivery by obstetricians;
3. Admitted to the delivery room;
4. Agree to receive epidural analgesia during labor.

Exclusion criteria

1. History of psychiatric disease (indicate those that are diagnosed before or during pregnancy by psychiatrists);
2. Presence of contraindications to epidural analgesia, which includes: (1) History of infectious disease of the central nervous system (poliomyelitis, cerebrospinal meningitis, encephalitis, etc.); (2) History of spinal or intra-spinal disease (trauma or surgery of spinal column, intra-spinal canal mass, etc.); (3) Systemic infection (sepsis); (4) Skin or soft tissue infection at the site of epidural puncture; (5) Coagulopathy.
3. Other reasons that are considered unsuitable for study participation.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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200 participants in 2 patient groups

Individualized epidural analgesia

Experimental group

Description:

Epidural catheterization will be performed after the beginning of the first stage of labor. Epidural analgesia will begin when asked by parturients and the numeric rating scale of pain is 5 or higher. A loading dose (10 ml mixture of 0.1% ropivacaine and 0.5 ug/ml sufentanil) will be administered through the epidural catheter. After a 20-minute observation, a patient-controlled analgesia pump (containing a mixture of 0.08% ropivacaine and 0.4 ug/ml sufentanil) will be connected to the epidural catheter and programmed to deliver a 6-ml bolus with a 20-minute lockout interval and a 4 ml/h background infusion. Analgesia will be terminated at the end of the third stage of labor.

Treatment:

Drug: Individualized epidural analgesia

Routine epidural analgesia

Active Comparator group

Description:

Epidural catheterization will be performed after the beginning of the first stage of labor and the cervix is dilated to 1 cm or more. Epidural analgesia will then begin. A loading dose (10 ml mixture of 0.1% ropivacaine and 0.5 ug/ml sufentanil) will be administered through the epidural catheter. After a 20-minute period observation, a patient-controlled analgesia pump (containing a mixture of 0.08% ropivacaine and 0.4 ug/ml sufentanil) will be connected to the epidural catheter and programmed to deliver a 6-ml bolus with a 20-minute lockout interval and a 4 ml/h background infusion. Analgesia will be terminated at the end of the third stage of labor.

Treatment:

Drug: Routine epidural analgesia