Epidural analgesia

BACKGROUND: Effective post-operative analgesia profoundly influences patient recovery and outcomes after caesarean delivery. The Transversus Abdominis Plane (TAP) block represents a potential alternative, potentially offering greater effectiveness than epidural analgesia while causing fewer adverse effects. OBJECTIVE: To assess if the abdominal transverse block provides superior postoperative pain relief in patients undergoing caesarean delivery compared to epidural analgesia...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Malignant ascites (MA) is common in patients with advanced cancer, and about 60% of patients with MA experience distressing symptoms. In addition, MA has been identified as a poor prognostic factor, therefore, making the management of MA an important issue. We aimed to review literature describing MA provide a narrative synthesis of relevant studies. METHODS: A literature search of articles published between 1971 and May 2023 was performed in PubMed, and Cochrane library using the words "ascites/malignant ascites" and the theme of each section...

BACKGROUND: Midwives provide counselling for birth plans (BPs) to women during prenatal care; however, the impact of individualised BP counselling interventions based on shared decision-making (SDM) regarding women's preferences is unknown. METHODS: This randomised cluster trial included four primary healthcare units. Midwives provided BP counselling based on SDM to women in the intervention group (IG) during prenatal care along with a handout about evidence-based recommendations...

The conduct and reporting of studies with a noninferiority hypothesis is challenging because of the complexity involved in their design and interpretation. However, studies with a noninferiority design have increased in popularity. A recently published trial reported on the noninferiority of lidocaine infusion to epidural analgesia in major abdominal surgeries. Apart from needing a critical appraisal, this draws attention to improve our understanding of noninferiority study framework and its unique features...

BACKGROUND: Mode of delivery in women with previous history of cesarean delivery (CD) is highly modifiable by the practices of the delivery unit. Vaginal birth after a cesarean (VBAC) delivery is a safe and preferred alternative in most cases. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of adopting a complex set of measures aimed at the mode of delivery in this group. METHODS: This was a retrospective observational study comparing two birth cohorts before and after the implementation of a series of quality improvement (QI) interventions...

BACKGROUND: Thoracic surgery without general anesthesia can be traced back to the First World War, and thoracic epidural block was used to complete the operation due to a large number of patients with gunshot wounds who needed emergency thoracic surgery. By reducing the intraoperative opioid dose, intraoperative and postoperative opioid-related adverse events such as respiratory depression, nausea and vomiting, delirium, hyperalgesia, and other side effects can be reduced to the benefit of patients...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the effects of two different applications of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on the reduction of postoperative acute pain after hip fracture surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study, 120 patients undergoing hip surgery were divided into three groups. The first group received patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with epidural fentanyl and additional medications. The second group received lumbar plexus and sciatic nerve transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (LS-TENS) along with the same medication protocol as the first group...

Neuropathic pain occurs in people experiencing lesion or disease affecting the somatosensorial system. It is present in 7% of the general population and may not fully respond to first- and second-line treatments in up to 40% of cases. Neuromodulation approaches are often proposed for those not tolerating or not responding to usual pharmacological management. These approaches can be delivered surgically (invasively) or non-invasively. Invasive neuromodulation techniques were the first to be employed in neuropathic pain...

BACKGROUND: Given the advances in medicine, women with Fontan circulation are now reaching childbearing age. However, data on the mode of delivery and anesthetic management of these patients are limited. We report the cases of five pregnant women with Fontan circulation. CASE PRESENTATION: The mean age at delivery was 28 ± 3 years, and the mean gestational period was 34 weeks and 3 days. Anticoagulation therapy was switched from warfarin and aspirin to continuous intravenous heparin...

This study delves into the prevalence of spinal anesthesia-induced hypotension during cesarean (c-section) childbirth, focusing on existing treatments and their efficacy. Currently, neuraxial analgesia is the most efficient method for alleviating pain during c-sections, but its major side effect, hypotension, necessitates a thorough understanding of the available treatment options. A scoping review was conducted using PubMed and Rayyan, with inclusion criteria being English peer-reviewed articles from the last five years, involving nulligravida/primigravida women under 35 years old in the United States...

Shower hydrotherapy is generally considered benign during labor. We report a case of extensive scalds in a primigravida who used shower hydrotherapy to treat severe back labor pain from fetal malposition. Interestingly, her back pain was so severe that she felt no pain as her scald developed, describing the hot water from the showerhead as the only measure which "soothed" her pain. Her scald was diagnosed presumptively during assessment for epidural analgesia. The nature of her back labor pain, associated with occiput posterior fetal head position and her management are described...

Background Some evidence indicates that maternal analgesia during labor may have adverse effects on neonates due to exposure to specific drugs or the potential effects of analgesia on the course of labor. We assessed the clinical outcome of term neonates born to mothers who received epidural analgesia (E) or systemic analgesia with remifentanil (R) during labor. Methods Data was collected retrospectively over one year. We have evaluated the medical records of 247 full-term neonates; 208 were born to mothers who received E and 39 to mothers who received R...

OBJECTIVES: At our center, natural home-like delivery settings have been established in or near conventional labor wards, for the care of pregnant women who prefer little or no medical intervention during labor and birth. We compared obstetrical and neonatal outcomes of women in active spontaneous labor, between those who chose to deliver in a natural-delivery setup and those who chose a conventional setting. METHODS: This retrospective study included low-risk women who delivered at term between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2022, in a single tertiary university affiliated medical center...

BACKGROUND: Labour pain is one of the most painful experiences that a woman faces in her lifetime. There are various options for labour pain management. Epidural analgesia is the gold standard method for pain management during labour. In developing and under-developed countries there are many challenges to provide this service, a very important one being knowledge about epidural analgesia among the parturients and the physicians. METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out among 384 pregnant women attending Antenatal clinic of a tertiary level teaching hospital using pretested structured questionnaire prepared by a team of anaesthesiologists and obstetricians...

BACKGROUND: Sporadic intracranial vascular malformations can pose significant risk to parturients, and additional reports of management may inform patient care. Here we describe the peripartum management of parturients with intracranial vascular malformations. METHODS: After Institutional Review Board approval, we performed a retrospective analysis of parturients with a known sporadic intracranial vascular malformation including cavernous malformation, developmental venous anomaly, or arteriovenous malformation who delivered at our institution between 2007 and 2020...

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Following robot assisted abdominal surgery, the pain can be moderate in severity. Neuraxial analgesia may decrease the activity of the detrusor muscle, reduce the incidence of bladder spasm and provide effective somatic and visceral analgesia. In this systematic review, we assessed the role of neuraxial analgesia in robot assisted abdominal surgery. DESIGN: Systematic review. SETTINGS: Robot assisted abdominal surgery. PATIENTS: Adults...

BACKGROUND: The aim of our study was to administer adequate local anesthetic in programmed intermittent epidural bolus (PIEB) to avoid breakthrough pain and decrease the use of manual and PCEA boluses. We, therefore, conducted this study to determine the effective PIEB interval time between boluses of ropivacaine 0.0625% with dexmedetomidine 0.4 μg/ml at a fixed volume of 10 mL in 90% of subjects (EI90 ), without the use of patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA)...

Combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia is an excellent technique for providing intraoperative and postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty. Epidural catheters threaded through a Tuohy needle with a cephalad needle bevel orientation follow a winding pattern within the epidural space. Caudal or downward migration of an epidural catheter may lead to unsatisfactory anaesthesia and epidural failure. Colour flow Doppler sonography is emerging as an effective technique to determine the epidural catheter tip position...

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to determine if there were racial/ethnic disparities in pain assessment and management from labor throughout the postpartum period. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of all births from January 2019 to December 2021 in a single urban, quaternary care hospital, excluding patients with hysterectomy, ICU stay, transfusion of more than 3 units of packed red blood cells, general anesthesia, or evidence of a substance abuse disorder...

BACKGROUND: Epidural test dose for labor analgesia is controversial and varies widely in clinical practice. It is currently unclear whether using a portion of the initial dose for analgesia as the test dose delays the onset time of analgesia, compared to the traditional test dose. METHODS: One hundred and twenty-six parturients who chose epidural analgesia during labor were randomly assigned to two groups. The first dose in group L was 3 ml 1.5% lidocaine, and in the RF group was 10 ml 0...