Efficacy of Epidural Analgesia and Intravenous Tramadol in Relieving Labour Pain: A Prospective Hospital Based Study

Abstract

Background: Labour Pain during pregnancy is a painful experience for nearly all women. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy, safety and adverse effects of epidural analgesia, tramadol in pain relief. Material and Methods: A total of 90 cases were studied. They included primi- as well as multigravidae, belonging to ASA grade 1 and 2 between the ages of 20-40 years, 37-41 weeks of pregnancy were selected. They were in established active stage of labor (uterine contraction 3 per 10 minutes, lasting for 30 to 40 seconds, cervical dilation more than 3 cm and up to 5 cm and cervical effacement more than or equal to 60%) with singleton fetus presenting by vertex and agreeable for analgesia. The selected patients were divided into three groups of Group I (control group, n=30), labour was carried out without using any analgesic technique, Group II (epidural Group, n=30) – Inj. bupivacaine 0.25% was given epidurally for analgesia, Group III (Tramadol Group, n=30) – Inj. Tramadol was given intravenously for analgesia. Result: From the observations gathered from this study, this can concluded that epidural analgesia provides much better analgesia than non-conventional methods of analgesia during labour. Conclusion: Tramadol have also a fair to good role in pain relief in labour, but mainly in first stage of labour when the pain is not severe enough.