ABSTRACT
The use of opioids in labour analgesia has been used as an adjuvant to local anaesthetics. For early labour, satisfactory analgesia with epidural fentanyl or sufentanil alone is possible. This study evaluates the impact of epinephrine on sedative effect and analgesia related to the latter technique. After written conscent 100 ASAI or II obstetric patients with spontaneous onset of labour requesting eqidural analgesia were tested in this study. The patients were randomly divided into 4 groups. Group A received epidural sufentanil, Group B received epidural fentanyl, Group C received epidural sufentenil and epinephrine, Group D received epidural fentanyl and epinephrine. The addition of epinephrine significantly reduced the incidence of sedation [p = 0.005] and prolonged the duration of analgesia [p= = 0.005] maternal satisfaction was higher with addition of epinephrine [Group C and D]