Encuesta Nacional sobre la Práctica Clínica en Analgesia Obstétrica en España

Abstract

Introduction

A national survey was conducted among maternity hospitals nationwide to understand the variability in clinical practice for obstetric analgesia and to reach a consensus on optimal care in the future in Spain.

Materials and methods

Spanish experts in obstetric anesthesiology designed a survey on the practice of obstetric analgesia during childbirth, following a Delphi process. The survey was sent to 195 Spanish maternity hospitals between April and September 2022 using Google Forms. A descriptive study of the results was performed.

Results

Responses were obtained from 108 centers (55.4%), of which 88 (83.8%) were public hospitals. The most commonly used technique was epidural analgesia in 97 (92.4%) centers. Nine (8.6%) centers used the combined spinal-epidural (CSE) technique, 5 (4.8%) used spinal analgesia, and 3 (2.9%) used dural puncture epidural (DPE) analgesia. The most commonly used local anesthetic was levobupivacaine 0.1-0.25% in 82 (78.1%) centers. Fentanyl or sufentanil were added to the local anesthetic in 96 (91.4%) centers. Epidural maintenance was performed with continuous epidural infusion (CEI) + patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) or programmed intermittent epidural bolus (PIEB) + PCEA in 64 (60.9%) and 33 (30.5%) centers, respectively. Fifteen (14.3%) centers lacked alternative techniques to epidural analgesia and 25 (23.8%) did not follow obstetric analgesia protocols.

Conclusion

Despite the variability in clinical practice for obstetric analgesia in Spain, the vast majority of centers follow recommendations in this field. There is room for improvement, which should be considered a fundamental strategy for progressing towards excellence.