Pharmacokinetic study of ropivacaine in women receiving extradural analgesia in labor

الملخص EN

opivacaine is one of the widely used local anesthetics which are used in extradural analgesia for providing pain relief during labor.

The aim of the present work is to study the pharmacokinetic of extradural analgesia with 0.2% Ropivacaine and to evaluate the association between umbilical and maternal plasma concentrations.

Thirty parturient in early labor at term with single, vertex presentation fetus, following an uncomplicated pregnancy, requesting epidural analgesia were enrolled.

Ages of the parturients ranged from 22-35 years, and the fetal heart at the time of admission was normal.

Written consents were obtained from all parturients included in the study.

Each parturient received 15 ml of Ropivacaine (2 mg/ml) followed by subsequent top up doses of 10 ml (2 mg/ml) every hour were given until labor.

Blood samples were taken from the mothers and from the umbilical veins.

The separated plasma was used for measuring drug concentration by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

The unpaired t-test was applied for comparing the mean of variables between different groups.

The study indicated that the used dose of Ropivacaine provided safe and effective extradural analgesia for labor pain.

The commonest side effect was hypotension, with no other adverse events attributable to systemic local anesthetic toxicity.

Maximum concentrations of Ropivacaine in maternal and umbilical venous blood were below the level of toxic concentration.