title: Parturient perineal distensibility tolerance assessed by EPI-NO: an observational study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine how parturient women tolerate the use of a perineal distensibility assessment technique using the EPI-NO device.
  
  
  METHODS
  An observational study with a total of 227 full-term parturient women was performed. During the evaluation with EPI-NO, parturient patients were asked about their sensation of discomfort. The degree of discomfort was measured using the Visual Analogue Scale, with a score from zero to 10. The Mann-Whitney test was applied to assess perineal distensibility measured by EPI-NO and the degree of discomfort caused by the test according to parity. The relation between perineal distensibility and discomfort was analyzed by using the Spearman correlation test (r).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The test with EPI-NO caused only slight discomfort (mean Visual Analogue Scale of 3.8), and primiparous women reported significantly greater discomfort (mean Visual Analogue Scale of 4.5) than did multiparous (mean Visual Analogue Scale=3.1), with p<0.001 women. A negative correlation was observed, in other words, the greater the perineal distensibility on the EPI-NO, the lower the pain reported by the patients (r=-0.424; p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The assessment of perineal distensibility with EPI-NO was well tolerated by the parturient women.
authors.affiliation: Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mary Uchiyama
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.affiliation: Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Nelson
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sass
authors.affiliation: Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Elito Júnior
authors.affiliation: Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Carla Dellabarba
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Petricelli
authors.affiliation: Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Sandra Maria
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Alexandre
authors.affiliation: Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Araujo Júnior
authors.affiliation: Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Miriam Raquel Diniz
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Zanetti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004841:Episiotomy / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D022125:Lacerations / Q000517:prevention & control; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010298:Parity / Q000502:physiology; D017773:Pelvic Floor / Q000502:physiology*; D017699:Pelvic Pain / Q000517:prevention & control; D010502:Perineum / Q000293:injuries / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D055815:Young Adult
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