Analgesia, labour, dexmedetomidine

Background The epidural analgesia technique is effective for labor analgesia and combinations of various local anesthetics with lipophilic opioids like fentanyl are used. However, fentanyl can cause an increased incidence of pruritus, urinary retention, nausea, vomiting, giddiness, shivering, and respiratory depression. Dexmedetomidine and clonidine are selective alpha 2 agonists with analgesic properties and have been used via the neuraxial route with local anesthetics for the same without the side effects of fentanyl...

Background and Aims: Although intrathecal analgesia is an effective option during labour, there is a need to establish sustainable and assured analgesia during the entire labour process. We aimed to assess the effect of adding dexmedetomidine, fentanyl or morphine to low-dose bupivacaine-dexamethasone for intrathecal labour analgesia in multiparous women. Methods: This was a triple-blind, randomised controlled trial that included 140 multiparous women. Eligible women were randomly allocated to have intrathecal bupivacaine-dexamethasone with dexmedetomidine (group D), fentanyl (group F), morphine (group M) or saline (placebo) (group C)...

Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective and specific alpha-2 adrenergic agonist with sedative, analgesic and sympathetic activities. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of in utero exposure of dexmedetomidine on foetal development and postnatal behaviour in the offspring. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were chronically treated with dexmedetomidine (0, 5, 10 and 20 microg/kg, subcutaneously) daily from gestation day 7 to day 19. Another group of animals received only a single acute dose of dexmedetomidine (20 microg/kg) on gestational day 19 to mimic a model for systemic analgesia during labour...