Obstetric epidural analgesia.
OBJECTIVE
There has recently been a growing interest in developing and modulating the techniques of neuraxial analgesia to meet the changing individual needs of parturients for pain relief during the course of labour and delivery.


RESULTS
Neuraxial analgesia is now very safe. Modern low-dose spinal-epidural regimens provide efficacious analgesia, stable maternal haemodynamics and few tolerable side effects. Complications are possible, however, due to the invasive nature of the technique, patient characteristics or medical malpractice.


CONCLUSIONS
Labour epidural analgesia still remains the 'gold standard' of obstetric pain management, although spinal analgesia with the single-injection technique is an attractive option due to its simplicity, reliability and efficacy. Up till now, there has been no single new drug to overcome the superiority of neuraxial analgesia in obstetrics.
Ranta
Pirjo O
PO
Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Oulu University, Oulu, Finland. rantapir@jippii.fi