2008 Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 152-158
To provide effective labor epidural analgesia, additional epidural infusion following the initial loading dose is required. For this purpose, either patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) or continuous epidural infusion (CEI) has been used and has improved the quality and safety of labor analgesia by reducing local anesthetic usage. By comparing PCEA and CEI, it has been reported that patients who receive PCEA are less likely to require anesthetic interventions, require lower doses of local anesthetic and have less motor block than those who receive CEI. However, regardless of the choice, anesthesiologists should visit the patient throughout her delivery to optimize epidural infusion for labor analgesia.
