Decreased postpartum use of oral pain medication after a single dose of epidural morphine.

BACKGROUND: Pain after vaginal delivery may result from episiotomy, perineal laceration, or uterine involution. Many women have indwelling epidural catheters in place at delivery. We hypothesized that a small dose of epidural morphine would be an effective strategy for postpartum analgesia. METHODS: Eighty-one healthy parturients receiving epidural analgesia for labor were enrolled. Patients were randomized in double-blind fashion to 1 of 3 groups: all groups received a 4-mL volume of epidural solution consisting of saline (group 1, control), 1 mg (group 2), or 2 mg morphine (group 3) after vaginal delivery. During the first 24 hours postpartum, patients were evaluated for the amount of oral pain medication requested; visual analog scale scores for pain at rest and with movement; satisfaction with postpartum pain treatment; and opioid side effects including nausea, pruritus, urinary retention, and respiratory depression. RESULTS: Patients who received 2 mg of epidural morphine used an average of 0.7 (0-1, interquartile range) opioid-containing pain pills (acetaminophen with codeine or oxycodone) compared with 1.2 (0-2) in the 1-mg group and 1.9 (0-3) in the control group ( P = .07). There was a statistically significant difference in oral drug usage between those who received epidural morphine and those who did not ( P < .03). There were no differences in side effects except that at 12 hours postpartum there was an increase in Foley catheterization in the 1-mg morphine group ( P = .007). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that epidural morphine decreases the need for oral pain medication in the first 24 hours postpartum. No significant dose-dependent side effects were found.

Epinephrine is not a useful addition to intrathecal fentanyl or fentanyl-bupivacaine for labor analgesia.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Intrathecal fentanyl provides effective labor analgesia for a limited time with frequent side effects. We evaluated the effects of adding epinephrine to intrathecal fentanyl with and without bupivacaine. METHODS: Eighty healthy, term, nulliparous parturients with cervical dilation of 5 cm or less received combined spinal-epidural (CSE) analgesia. Subjects were randomized in a double-blind fashion to 1 of 4 intrathecal solutions containing fentanyl 35 microg with either saline (F); bupivacaine 2.5 mg + saline (FB); bupivacaine 2.5 mg + epinephrine 100 microg (FBE); or epinephrine 100 microg + saline (FE). Patients were evaluated for visual analog pain score, duration of spinal analgesia (time until patient request for additional analgesia), nausea/vomiting, pruritus, sensory and motor block, maternal blood pressure, and fetal heart rate (FHR). RESULTS: Intrathecal bupivacaine significantly prolonged fentanyl analgesia with or without epinephrine (P =.018), but epinephrine did not significantly prolong the duration of fentanyl alone or with bupivacaine (F, 92 +/- 39 minutes; FB, 125 +/- 31 minutes; FBE, 134 +/- 42 minutes; and FE, 117 +/- 48 minutes). Intrathecal epinephrine was associated with a higher incidence of severe nausea (P =.001), and the FBE group had more lower extremity weakness (P =.047). There was no difference in the incidence of severe pruritus, FHR deceleration, or delivery outcome between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that intrathecal epinephrine does not prolong the duration of fentanyl or fentanyl with bupivacaine for labor analgesia in nulliparous parturients. Additionally, intrathecal epinephrine did not decrease the incidence of side effects and therefore cannot be recommended.