Comparative Study of 0.2% Ropivacaine & 0.2% Ropivacaine with 0.5 mcg/mL Dexmedetomidine in Epidural Labour Analgesia.

ABSTRACT

Labour analgesia is the emerging technique in obstetric anaesthesia. There are various ways to provide painless labour to a mother. The best technique is epidural analgesia and providing a mother with good analgesia without a motor block is best done by ropivacaine and analgesia can be prolonged with addition of adjuvants. We wanted to compare efficacy, safety, quality of analgesia, total drug requirement, effect on the course and duration of labour, neonatal outcome, maternal satisfaction and adverse events if any, of ropivacaine 0.2% + 0.5 mcg/mL of dexmedetomidine with that of 0.2% of ropivacaine alone, for epidural labour analgesia.METHODS60 patients were divided in to 2 groups of 30 each RS and RD. RD received 8 mL of ropivacaine with 0.5 mcg/mL of dexmedetomidine while RS group received ropivacaine 8 mL with normal saline through an epidural catheter inserted at lumbar level. haemodynamic parameters were assessed along with APGAR score for neonatal status and maternal satisfaction was documented.RESULTSRopivacaine with dexmedetomidine was found to be a superior combination than plain ropivacaine in providing labour analgesia. The mean drug requirement in RD group (27.46 mL) was less than RS group (30.93 mL). Duration of labour is less in RD group (180.93±21.26 min) compared to RS group (199.49±24.63 min). Neonatal outcome and maternal satisfaction were better in RD group than RS group.CONCLUSIONSMaternal satisfaction with better analgesia was seen when dexmedetomidine was added to ropivacaine group owing to significant results in VAS scores in both the groups also duration of labour was reduced in RD group.