Extradural analgesia with clonidine and fentanyl compared with 0.25% bupivacaine in the first stage of labour

Conventional extradural analgesia during labour with 0.25-0.375% bupivacaine may induce motor weakness and subjective sensory deficit, reducing maternal satisfaction. Even in a regimen for ambulatory extradural analgesia (0.1% bupivacaine-fentanyl 2 mu g ml(-1)), a potential for proprioreception impairment exists, which may impair safe ambulation. We have combined fentanyl with clonidine for extradural analgesia in labour, and compared its effects with 0.25% bupivacaine, in a randomized, double-blind study. We studied 28 women requesting extradural analgesia for labour; they were allocated randomly to either group 1, who received clonidine 120 mu g with fentanyl 50 mu g, or group 2, who received bupivacaine 25 mg. Detailed clinical neurological examination was undertaken 30 min later. Pain was assessed subjectively using a 10-cm visual analogue scale (VAS). There were no significant differences in VAS between the groups at any time. Median onset of analgesia was longer in group 1 (24.3 (interquartile range 20-35) compared with 17.5 (15-25) min) (P < 0.05) and 79% of group 1 vs 86% of group 2 patients reported a high degree of satisfaction with extradural analgesia. Patients in group 2 had a much higher incidence of motor weakness (P < 0.01), impaired perception of pinprick (P < 0.01) and impaired distal joint proprioception (P < 0.05) than group 1. We conclude that clonidine 120 mu g-fentanyl 50 mu g provided comparable extradural analgesic efficacy as 0.25% bupivacaine for the first stage of labour. Furthermore, unwanted neurological effects were significantly less.