Comparison of ropivacaine plus sufentanil and ropivacaine plus dexmedetomidine for labor epidural analgesia

Objective: Effective analgesia during delivery can not only decrease pain, but also have a significant function in ensuring the safety of baby and mother. Sufentanil is generally used opioid with ropivacaine in epidural anesthesia in labor pain management; however it can cause some adverse reaction. Dexmedetomidine is an a2-adrenoceptor agonist with high selectivity. It possesses opioid-sparing and analgesic effects and it is suitable for the long-term and short-term intraoperative sedation. The purpose of this present study is to compare the analgesic effect of ropivacaine with dexmedetomidine against ropivacaine with sufentanyl in epidural labor. Methods: This is a single center, placebo-controlled randomized trial which will be performed from May 2020 to May 2021. It was authorized via the Institutional Review Committee in the first medical center of Chinese PLA General Hospital (S2018-211-0). One hundred sixty full-term protozoa are included in this work. They are randomly divided into four groups (n = 40 per group): the RD1 group (with the epidural administration of 0.125% ropivacaine + dexmedetomidine of 0.5 μg/mL), and the RD2 group (with the epidural administration of 0.08% ropivacaine + dexmedetomidine 0.5 μg/mL), the RS1 group (with the epidural administration of 0.125% ropivacaine + sufentanil of 0.5 μg/mL), as well as RS2 group (with the epidural administration of 0.08% ropivacaine + sufentanil of 0.5 μg/mL). Clinical outcomes are pain score, a modified Bromage scale, the Ramsay Sedation Scale, and adverse reactions during analgesia. All the needed analyses are implemented through utilizing SPSS for Windows Version 20.0. Results: The first table shows the clinical outcomes between these four groups. Conclusion: This current work can provide a primary evidence regarding the clinical outcomes of dexmedetomidine versus sufentanil for labor epidural analgesia. Trial registration: This study protocol was registered in Research Registry (researchregistry5877).