{"title":"Neuraxial initiation techniques for labor analgesia: Comparative insights on standard epidural, combined spinal-epidural and dural puncture epidural analgesia.","authors":"Anthony Chau, Lawrence C Tsen","doi":"10.1097/ACO.0000000000001487","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>In recent years, initiation techniques for neuraxial labor analgesia have focused on enhancing analgesic quality while minimizing complications. This review aims to summarize recent evidence on the standard epidural (EPL), combined spinal-epidural (CSE), and dural puncture epidural (DPE) techniques, emphasizing their benefits, risks, and relevance in contemporary obstetric anesthesia care.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>The DPE technique offers unique values, combining the advantages from CSE and EPL techniques. DPE and CSE, compared with EPL, techniques involve a dural puncture with a spinal needle, and the resulting epidural-intrathecal conduit enables translocation of analgesic agents, providing faster onset, earlier sacral coverage, better catheter function, and more rapid epidural extension to surgical anesthesia. Moreover, by limiting the intrathecal dose administered with the CSE technique, the DPE technique lowers the risks of fetal bradycardia and pruritus.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>EPL and CSE techniques are widely used for neuraxial labor analgesia. The DPE technique offers a novel alternative, delivering high-quality analgesia with minimal complications. While the benefits of the DPE technique are increasingly being recognized, additional comparative research will better support anesthesiologists in selecting the most appropriate technique across diverse clinical scenarios.</p>","PeriodicalId":50609,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Anesthesiology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current Opinion in Anesthesiology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1097/ACO.0000000000001487","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ANESTHESIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
Neuraxial initiation techniques for labor analgesia: Comparative insights on standard epidural, combined spinal-epidural and dural puncture epidural analgesia.
Purpose of review: In recent years, initiation techniques for neuraxial labor analgesia have focused on enhancing analgesic quality while minimizing complications. This review aims to summarize recent evidence on the standard epidural (EPL), combined spinal-epidural (CSE), and dural puncture epidural (DPE) techniques, emphasizing their benefits, risks, and relevance in contemporary obstetric anesthesia care.
Recent findings: The DPE technique offers unique values, combining the advantages from CSE and EPL techniques. DPE and CSE, compared with EPL, techniques involve a dural puncture with a spinal needle, and the resulting epidural-intrathecal conduit enables translocation of analgesic agents, providing faster onset, earlier sacral coverage, better catheter function, and more rapid epidural extension to surgical anesthesia. Moreover, by limiting the intrathecal dose administered with the CSE technique, the DPE technique lowers the risks of fetal bradycardia and pruritus.
Summary: EPL and CSE techniques are widely used for neuraxial labor analgesia. The DPE technique offers a novel alternative, delivering high-quality analgesia with minimal complications. While the benefits of the DPE technique are increasingly being recognized, additional comparative research will better support anesthesiologists in selecting the most appropriate technique across diverse clinical scenarios.
期刊介绍:
Published bimonthly and offering a unique and wide ranging perspective on the key developments in the field, each issue of Current Opinion in Anesthesiology features hand-picked review articles from our team of expert editors. With fifteen disciplines published across the year – including cardiovascular anesthesiology, neuroanesthesia and pain medicine – every issue also contains annotated references detailing the merits of the most important papers.