Continuous spinal anesthesia with Spinocath~R for obstetric analgesia

摘要

Combined spinal-epidural (CSE) analgesia for labor was introduced into the obstetric anesthesiologist's armamentarium in 1989, after the demonstration that intrathecal fentanyl rapidly provided profound analgesia.1 Opioid alone, or opioid in combination with local anesthetic, is injected intrathecally to initiate neuraxial analgesia. Maintenance analgesia for labor and delivery is provided via the epidural catheter. In fact, this is a nonsense, because in the first phase of labor a segmental epidural would be sufficient to provide good analgesia, while in the final phase (delivery), low spinal anesthesia to block S2-4 would be sufficient to provide perineal analgesia.