Active clinical trials for "Labor Pain"

There are many methods used for the assessment of pain in the area of anesthesia including heart rate variability which reflects the influence of the autonomic nervous system on the heart. An original index, the ANI (Analgesia Nociception Index), quantifies pain during anesthesia. Obstetric epidural analgesia is particularly suited to evaluate ANI in conscious patients with a comparison of ANI with the measurement of pain by a visual analog scale (VAS). Evaluation of ANI is performed just before epidural catheter insertion and during the 10 first minutes after saline, sufentanil or lidocaine epidural administration.

Reducing the length of labor is a highly desirable goal of intrapartum care, both from a perspective of maternal and fetal well-being, and for the providers of the birth services. Avoiding along, protracted labor entails shorter exposure to pain, anxiety and stress and would thus translate into a major improvement in maternal satisfaction with the childbirth experience. Based on the premise that shortening the length of labor is beneficial, interventions aimed at accelerating the progression of labor have been introduced routinely as part of standard labor management and care throughout the 20th century. Certain labor accelerative procedures, such as amniotomy, became common practice and have been put to the acid test of randomized control trials to evaluate their efficacy. Use of anticholinergics/antispasmodics as a method of augmenting labor was first described in 1937 by Hirsch, who reported a decrease in labor length by two to four hours following Intrapartum administration of an atropine-like drug (Syntropan®)mainly among older nulliparas. Drotaverine, an isoquinolone derivative is a superior smooth muscle relaxant which acts specifically on spastic sites and corrects the cAMP and calcium balance relieving smooth muscle spasm. This inhibitory action is detected only in lower uterine segment during labor since muscle fibers in upper uterine segment are strongly affected by contractile effect of oxytocin. Use of drotaverine during pregnancy is free of any teratogenic and embryotoxic effects. The Research question is: Does the use of antispasmodic Drotaverine shorten the duration of active first stage of labor in nulliparous women as compared to placebo?

Epidural analgesia has proven to be an effective method for severe pain relief associated with labor and delivery. During labor, a low dose continuous infusion of local anesthetic and narcotic will be administered through an epidural catheter. As labor progresses and the baby's head makes it way through the pelvis, breakthrough pain may emerge and often needs further treatment. The investigators provide pain relief by administering analgesics through the epidural catheter. The patients will be randomly assigned to receive one of two medication mixtures believed to be successful in treating this type of pain associated with advanced labor. After this initial treatment, if pain relief is not attained, the patient may receive the other medication as well. The medications used in this study have been used at this institution for some time and have been found to be safe for mother and baby. The opioid (fentanyl) dose is small and only a small fraction will be transmitted to the baby. The other medication (clonidine) better known as a blood pressure medication has also been used for pain relief. Studies and clinical experience have shown that clonidine when given epidurally in the doses used in this study has minimal, if any effect, on the blood pressure of the mother or of the baby. The investigators will record medical and obstetric history and labor progress relevant to the patient. The patient will be asked questions regarding labor pain and side effects before and after the analgesic is administered. The primary objective is to determine which treatment regimen is more successful in abolishing breakthrough pain in advanced labor.

Labor analgesia is an essential health caring procedure for women. However, epidural analgesia cannot be performed on all subjects for different contraindications, such as lower platelet counter, back infection at the puncture site, and fear of epidural injection etc. Therefore, intravenous analgesia is an alternative for such conditions. Given the influence of intravenous administration of drugs on fetus, the drug selection is very important. Remifentanil, a super-short efficacious opioid, can last for 3-4 minutes after injection, which is similar in both maternal and fetal environment. Thus the fetus-associated side effects would be less than other drugs. The investigators hypothesized that remifentanil would be a superior intravenous drug used with patient-controlled technique for labor analgesia.

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of using lidocaine patches after cesarean section on pain control and opioid use in the immediate post-operative period. The hypothesis is the use of lidocaine patches in the immediate post-operative period will lead to a decrease in the use of opioids as pain control compared to patients that do not have a lidocaine patch in place. Additionally, the a decrease in the visual analog pain score compared to women who do not use a lidocaine patch in the immediate post-operative period following cesarean delivery is anticipated.

Labor is the process where the cervix is prepared to allow the baby to pass from the uterine cavity to the outside world. In the ordinary course, it ends with spontaneous or instrumental vaginal delivery or cesarean section. Traditionally, the first stage in which the cervix is passively dilated in response to uterine contractions consists of the second stage in which the mother passes the baby through the vagina and the third stage, the exit of the placenta. In the first stage of labor, pain is caused by uterine contractions and pressure on the cervix. Pain is transmitted through the T10-L2 spinal nerves and is felt in the abdominal wall, waist, hips, or thighs. In the second stage, pain from the vagina and perineum is added to uterine pain. This pain is transmitted by the pudendal nerves through the S2-4 nerve roots. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of dural puncture epidural analgesia versus combined spinal-epidural analgesia with epidural volume extension on labor variables.

This study evaluates the use of intermittent epidural boluses compared to continuous infusion in maintaining epidural pain relief in labor. The medicine solution used contains, in addition to bupivacain and fentanyl, adrenalin in both groups.

This study intends to carry out a prospective, randomized double-blind study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the combined implementation of Dural puncture epidural (DPE) technique and Programmed intermittent epidural bolus (PIEB) for labor analgesia.

The purpose of this study is to determine if non-invasive distracting devices (Virtual Reality headset) are more effective than the standard of care (i.e., no technology based distraction) for preventing anxiety and pain scores in women who are undergoing child laboring procedures. The anticipated primary outcome will be a reduction of pregnant females overall anxiety and pain scores before and after such procedure(s), including but not limited to epidural/combined spinal epidural (CSE), IV placement and/or labor.

Cesarean delivery is one of the most common surgical procedures, performed at an increasingly high rate. It is associated with intense postoperative pain that may hamper the rehabilitation process and interfere with patient satisfaction and care provided to the newborn. Therefore, control of perioperative pain with multimodal regimens using local anesthetic may be important in short- and long-term convalescence after surgery. Opioid-based regimens are the "gold standard" of cesarean delivery analgesia. However, spinal and epidural opioids have a ceiling effect. Wound infiltration with local anesthetics has been used widely in the multimodal approach of pain relief. Continuous wound infusion with local anesthetic through a multiorifice catheter increases the duration of action and efficacy of local surgical wound infiltration compared with a one-time wound injection of local anesthetic. After cesarean delivery, Local anesthetic continuous wound infusion would be associated with better reduction in pain scores when compared to intrathecal morphine . Therefore, an assessor and patient blinded, randomized study that aimed to compare the efficacy and side effects of these analgesia techniques was conducted.