Inadequate Pain Relief during Epidural Analgesia for Labor and Delivery

Abstract

 I carried out a retrospective assessment of epidural analgesia in 3,439 parturients. Among them, 2,599 women had epidural analgesia for vaginal delivery. Most epidural insertions were performed according to own protocols. Only 52.3% had an uncomplicated and successful first epidural analgesia. The other 47.7% had inadequate pain relief upon the first epidural injection and late in labor, and required supplemental epidural medications. The data suggest that the effectiveness of the first epidural injection and of the late injection in labor should be determined by informed maternal satisfaction.