Comparison of patient controlled analgesia and continuous infusion for epidural labor analgesia: A prospective,randomized study [Epidural dogum analjezisinde hasta kontrollü analjezi ve sürekli infüzyon yontemlerinin karçilaçtirilmasi: prospectif,randomize caluma]

Objective: epidural analgesia is the most popular method which can provide excellent pain relief and it allows the mother to be awake and cooperative during labor. after the initial loading dose is given,epidural analgesia may be maintained by different techniques. the aim of this study was to compare patient controlled epidural analgesia (pcea) and continuous epidural infusion (cei) on analgesia quality (the primary outcome measure) and maternal-fetal effects,side effects and drug consumption (secondaty outcomes).method: we collected data of 40 parturients who request for epidural labor analgesia. the initial loading was given with 10 ml 0.125 % levobupivacaine and 100 figfentanyl in the two groups. they were allocated into two groups as pcea (n=20) or cei (n=20) for maintenance with the same solution of % 0,125 levobupivacaine and2 ¡ag ml' fentanyl mixture. in the pcea group,parturients self-administered 4 ml boluses,with a lock-out interval of 20 min and a 4 h maximum dose of 48 ml,in the cei group on 12 mllh continuous infusion was delivered. results: quality of analgesia measured by visual analog scale (vas) and maternal satisfaction were comparable in the two groups. the drug consumption was lower in the pcea group compared to the cei group (p=0,005). haemodynamic parameters,side effects and complications were equally distributed in the two groups. conclusion: regarding similar analgesic efficacy,pcea with levobupivacaine and fentanyl allows a decrease in local anesthetic consumption,so it is a good alternative to the cei method.