Epidural Dexmedetomidine vs Nalbuphine for Labor Analgesia

Labor pain often causes a strong stress response in women. Recently, it is concerned by most mothers and doctors that how to effectively alleviate the pain during delivery. There is no standard treatment for labor pain. A wide range of pharmacological and non-pharmacological labor pain relief techniques are available for pregnant women . Labor analgesia, also known as painless childbirth, refers to the use of various methods to reduce maternal labor pain or make it disappear. The ideal labor analgesia should be based on maternal and child safety, and should have fast acting, good analgesic effect and less adverse reaction. Epidural block anesthesia is convenient, and has less adverse reaction and obvious effect in the commonly used analgesic methods, which is widely used in the current way of analgesia. Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective α2 adrenergic receptor agonist that has sedative, hypnotic, and analgesic effects . Nalbuphine is a synthetic agonist antagoLabor pain often causes a strong stress response in women. Recently, it is concerned by most mothers and doctors that how to effectively alleviate the pain during delivery. There is no standard treatment for labor pain. A wide range of pharmacological and non-pharmacological labor pain relief techniques are available for pregnant women . Labor analgesia, also known as painless childbirth, refers to the use of various methods to reduce maternal labor pain or make it disappear. The ideal labor analgesia should be based on maternal and child safety, and should have fast acting, good analgesic effect and less adverse reaction. Epidural block anesthesia is convenient, and has less adverse reaction and obvious effect in the commonly used analgesic methods, which is widely used in the current way of analgesia. Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective α2 adrenergic receptor agonist that has sedative, hypnotic, and analgesic effects . Nalbuphine is a synthetic agonist antagonist opioid that has the characteristics of mu-antagonist and kappa-agonist activities. Nalbuphine has gained popularity as a parenteral analgesic for intraoperative, postoperative, and obstetrical uses . The purpose of this study is to compare between the 2 drugs in decreasing labor pain. st opioid that has the characteristics of mu-antagonist and kappa-agonist activities. Nalbuphine has gained popularity as a parenteral analgesic for intraoperative, postoperative, and obstetrical uses . The purpose of this study is to compare between the 2 drugs in decreasing labor pain.

Inclusion criteria

All the parturients should :

• Be between 21 - 40 years old
• ASA classification I- II
• Para 1-2
• Requesting analgesia
• Have a normal birth canal
• Be at the beginning of active phase of labor i.e. cervical dilatation of 4 cm with regular uterine contractions.
• The fetus should be a single full-term fetus (37- 42 weeks of gestation) with normal head position, normal development.

Exclusion criteria

Parturients

• Younger than 21 and older than 40 years old
• With contraindication of regional anesthesia
• With pre-existing neurological disease
• With history of allergy to the study drugs
• With cephalopelvic disproportion, fetal distress, amniotic fluid infection, placental insufficiency or scarred uterus