Effect Of Use of Dexmedetomidine as an Adjuvant to Bupivacaine 0.1% in Labor Analgesia.

Females who have experienced normal labor for child birth have claimed it to be most difficult and distressing moments of their life due to excruciating and unbearable pain. Provision of effective and satisfactory labor analgesia to the parturient helps in achieving greater degree of well-being for both mother and child. Several medical and non-medical pain relief methods are used since ages for pain relief during childbirth.

Epidural anesthesia and intravenous opioids (pethidine) are most commonly offered to the mothers for relieving labor pain. So far, Epidural is considered gold standard in attaining maternal satisfaction for pain free deliveries. lt can be modified for individual parturient in order to achieve highest level of comfort and pain relief. To attain better and prolonged analgesia several additives have been used with local anesthetists and their effects are studied. Epidural opioids are conventionally being used as adjuvants, however associated side effects (nausea, vomiting, and pruritus) may limit their use. An alpha 2 adrenoceptor agonist, dexmedetomidine, has been effectively used and studied in labor epidurals and provided better analgesia without significant side effects. Hamed Lateef Hospital is one of the largest tertiary care private setup offering painless deliveries in Lahore.

It is need of the hour to modify and improve our clinical practice in order to achieve highest level of patient satisfaction and provision of best possible maternal and fetal outcome. This study is proposed to investigate and elaborate the effect of adding dexmedetomidine to bupivacaine in labor epidurals and to study possible side-effects associated with its use.