Anesthesia with Nitrous Oxide Inhalation for Labor Analgesia

Objective To compare the clinical effects of patient-controlled epidural analgesia with nitrous oxide inhalationin in labor analgesia.Methods A total of 450 single-fetus full-term primiparas of vagina-deliverying were randomly divided into three groups with 150 cases for each group.When the cervix opened about 3cm,the patients of group A were given 0.1% ropivacaine for epidural analgesia and those of group B received inhalation of 50% nitrous oxide and 50% oxygen,and no analgesic drugs were used for group C.An observation was made of the effective outcome of different analgesia,duration of labor,way of delivery,fetal distress,neonatal asphyxia,postpartum hemorrhage and oxytocin use.Results A satisfactory delivery analgesia was obtained in groups A and B,and the analgesia effect of group A was better than that of group B(P0.05).The duration of labor was shortened and the cesarean section rate was decreased in groups A and B compared with group C(P0.05),with no significant difference between group A and group B.There was no increase in the second stage of labor time,vaginal delivery,postpartum hemorrhage,and oxytocin use in all the three groups,with no adverse effects on fetus and newborn.Conclusion A satisfectory delivery analgesia can be obtained by the two analgesia methods of epidural analgesia and nitrous oxide inhalation,with shortened labor process and decreased rate of cesarean section.However,patient-controlled epidural analgesia is more effective and suitable for labor analgesia than nitrous oxide inhalation.