Comparison of Patient-controlled Epidural Analgesia and Continuous Epidural Infusion for Labor Analgesia

Background: In recent years, patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) has been developed as an attractive alternative to continuous epidural infusion (CEI) for labor pain control. PCEA is still not popular for labor pain control in Taiwan and disparities may exist between different ethnic and cultural groups toward the attitude of labor pain control. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there were any differences between PCEA and CEI in the maintenance of epidural analgesia for Taiwanese parturients undergoing spontaneous delivery. Methods: We collected data of 179 parturient requests for epidural labor analgesia. They were allocated into two groups with PCEA (n = 81) or CEI (n = 98) for maintenance with the same solution of 0.08% ropivacaine and 2 μg/mL fentanyl mixture. The demographic characteristics, epidural maintenance methods, dosage requirements, obstetrical outcomes, intervention of inadequate analgesia or side effects, and the quality of labor analgesia of parturient were also analyzed. Results: There were no differences in demographic characteristics, duration of 1 and 2 stages, delivery methods, fetal Apgar scores, local anesthetics usage, and analgesic qualities between the PCEA and CEI groups. There were also more requirements for intervention by the anesthesiologist due to inadequate analgesia in the CEI group. Conclusion: The results of this study provided further evidence that PCEA is a highly effective method of the control of labor pain, which was highly accepted by women in labor. In a busy obstetric unit, this could potentially improve parturient satisfaction and reduce the workloads of clinicians and nurses. (Chang Gung Med J 2006;29:576-82)