A prospective review of the labor analgesia programme in a teaching hospital

BackgroundThe structured labor analgesia programme in our tertiary care hospital has been in place for the past few years. We undertook this study to analyze the programme and to draw conclusions to further improve the outcomes.MethodsA prospective analysis of the data pertaining to 200 patients participating in an ongoing labor analgesia programme in a tertiary care hospital from Nov 2008 to Aug 2009 was performed.ResultsMean visual analog score (VAS) before epidural block was 8.34 ± 0.79. Post procedure the average VAS score was 2.20 ± 0.79. One hundred and fifty six (78%) parturients delivered vaginally, 18 (9%) required instrumentation with vacuum including 1 forceps delivery in a multiparous parturient. In 17parturients (8.7%) fetal distress led to a decision to perform LSCS for delivery. Multiparous patients were significantly more satisfied as compared to nulliparous patients (p = 0.010).ConclusionThe study demonstrated excellent pain relief and patient satisfaction with minimal complications. The safety and efficacy of epidural bupivacaine in concentrations less than 0.625% combined with 25 mcg of fentanyl demonstrated in our study should be considered are commendation for the widespread adoption of the procedure in tertiary care hospitals.