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Development of Variable Volume Automated Mandatory Boluses for Patient-controlled Epidural Analgesia During Labour

Epidural analgesia is the gold standard of pain relief for labour pain. Despite this, up to 50% of parturients continue to experience pain leading to suffering and increased caregiver workload. There is also higher risk of motor blockade found in those receiving epidural analgesia, and these factors is associated with dysfunctional labour requiring obstetric intervention (instrumental delivery). Automated mandatory bolus (AMB) of variable-frequency (VAMB) has been shown to provide better pain relief as compared with conventional patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) with basal infusion, however its long lockout time per hour is associated with unsuccessful patient bolus requests, with similar motor block to conventional regimens. The investigators therefore proposes to develop a novel epidural delivery regimen: Variable volume AMB (VVAMB) will advance individualisation of labour epidural analgesia, by which a larger volume of bolus may contribute to better spread of the local anaesthetics within brief period and thereby reduces the chances of motor blockade that could reduce instrumental deliveries. This algorithm development including pilot and clinical trial will compare VVAMB with VAMB regimens, in reducing the incidence of motor block in 216 term women requesting for labour epidural analgesia.

Quality of Labour Epidural Analgesia With Intrathecal Morphine as a Component of Combined Spinal Epidural

The addition of morphine to a combination of bupivacaine and lipophilic opioids (fentanyl) for the spinal component of CSE for labor analgesia has been shown to increase the duration of analgesia. A meta-analysis by Al-Kazwini and coworkers suggests a possible beneficial prolonging effect of adding morphine to spinal analgesia, however, the authors concluded that more adequately powered randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are required to determine the benefits and harms of intrathecal morphine (ITM). This prolonged duration of action of ITM may reduce the need for frequent top-ups, which could alleviate nursing and anesthesiologist workload and enhance maternal satisfaction. An RCT conducted by Vasudevan and coworkers has concluded that the addition of 100 mcg ITM along with bupivacaine and fentanyl reduced the incidence of breakthrough pain in labor. Another dose-finding study comparing 50 and 100 mcg of ITM as a component of CSE labor analgesia concluded that 100 mcg of ITM significantly lowers the local anesthetic consumption and shorter duration of the first stage of labor without any significant difference in adverse effects. The RCT by Vasudevan et al. had a small sample size, enrolled mixed parity patients, and utilized continuous infusion for labor analgesia maintenance. Hence, the investigators plan to conduct adequately powered RCT enrolling only primigravidae patients, which tend to have more prolonged labor than multiparous and programmed intermittent epidural bolus (PIEB) with patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) will be used, which is a more contemporary labor maintenance technique.

Rectus Sheath Block With Liposomal Bupivacaine Versus Thoracic Epidural Analgesia for Pain Control Following Pancreatoduodenectomy

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: I. To determine if rectus sheath blocks with liposomal bupivacaine provide non-inferior analgesia compared with thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) for patients undergoing pancreatoduodenectomy. OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 groups. GROUP EPIDURAL (E): Prior to pancreatoduodenectomy, patients undergo thoracic epidural placement and receive bupivacaine and hydromorphone continuous infusion via epidural for up to 72 hours postoperatively. Patients also receive iopamidol via epidural and undergo x-ray imaging on study. GROUP RECTUS SHEATH (RS): Prior to pancreatoduodenectomy, patients undergo ultrasound and receive bupivacaine and liposomal bupivacaine injection into the rectus sheath.

Effects of an Educational Tool on Knowledge and Risk Retention About Epidural Analgesia in Parturients.

Discussing the risk and benefits of an epidural to a laboring woman can be a difficult task. Obtaining consent for the procedure whilst the pain, the anxiety, and the necessity of acting fast because of an active labor are added to the overwhelming quantity of information a laboring woman receive is among the challenges anesthesiologist must face before doing an epidural. The validity of the consent of a labouring women has already been proven in several studies. Indeed, it has been shown by that pain, either mild or severe, has no impact on the retention of epidural risks that have been explained. However, there is a significant variability regarding risk disclosure within different practice settings, particularly with respect to the incidence of serious complications. In studies, knowledge about the epidural and retention of information given at the time of consent remains poor, but could be improved by a learning tool (e.g., video, explanatory leaflet) At the investigators's institution, standardized risks are exposed to the patient during the epidural technique. The five risks mentioned are hypotension, lumbar pain, failure (10%), risk of dura mater puncture (1%) and post-puncture headache as well as severe nerve injury up to paralysis (1/200 000). These risks are checked off on the anesthesia sheet when discussed with the patient. Groupe "before" will be asked about recall of risk and information giving after standard consent counseling. Groupe "after" will be exposed to an informative document explaining the risk as soon as active labour was confirmed. Participants will also have usual consent information standardized by local practice. On post-partum day 1, participants will be asked about the risks exposed at the moment of consent regarding epidural analgesia by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire distributed to patients contains true and false statement about the epidural and they will be asked about the truth of information. No additional information about the epidural will be disclose to the patients during the questionnaire. Group "before" will also be asked questions about how they would like to receive information concerning epidural and group "after" will be asked about if they appreciate receiving an informative brochure. The informative document will be created by the study team and sent to the anesthesia and obstetrics teams in at study team's hospital for pre-approval. The maternity nurses will be asked to give the document as soon as the patient will be admitted to the ward. Before being recruited, parturient will have to ensure that they had indeed read the document before receiving epidural analgesia. The aim of this before-and-after study is to evaluate the impact of adding an information document available at the admission for active labour on improving the knowledge of patients receiving epidural anesthesia as well as its effectiveness on retention of the risks explained at the time of consent. In addition, one of the sub-objectives is to identify which factors influence risk retention in order to eventually better adapt our pre-epidural counseling.

The Application of Analgesia Nociception Index as an Objective Labor Pain Assessment During Epidural Analgesia

Epidural analgesia is considered an effective and safe method for obstetric pain control. Currently, self-assessment pain scales remain to be the gold standard in labor pain evaluation after the administration of epidural analgesia. However, individual patient susceptibility to pain perception makes difficulties for the clinicians to assess the effectiveness of painless labor precisely. Without a convincing objective tool for obstetric pain evaluation during epidural analgesia, the clinicians are hard to adjust adequate epidural drug dosage. Establishing an objective pain index would help the clinicians to have a better pain management during labor. In 2012, M. Le Guen et al. demonstrated a linear relationship between visual analogical pain scores(VAS) and Analgesia Nociception Index (ANI) values during labor. Their efforts started the application of ANI in obstetric pain monitoring. However, the reliability of ANI in obstetric pain monitoring under epidural analgesia have not yet been verified. The aim of this study is to evaluate the validity of ANI in obstetric pain monitoring during epidural analgesia.

Continuous Epidural Analgesia Versus Continuous Supra-Inguinal Fascia Iliaca Block in Total Hip Replacement Surgery

supra-inguinal FICB is a promising safe approach for lumbar plexus that may be useful for analgesia in hip surgeries.In this study the investigators are comparing continuous S-FICB with continuous epidural analgesia after total hip arthroplasty surgeries with the primary aim to assess efficacy of post-operative analgesia, and secondary aim to assess rehabilitation indices, side effects and radiological pattern of local anaesthetic distribution after S-FICB.

Comparison of Intrathecal Versus Epidural Fentanyl on Fetal Bradycardia in Labor Combined Spinal Epidural Analgesia

After approval by the Institutional Review Board and written informed consent, we plan to prospectively study pregnant patients who undergo neuraxial labor analgesia. All patients will receive combined-spinal-epidural analgesia. Patients will be randomly assigned to one of four groups by means of sealed envelope technique. Group A will receive a spinal dose of preservative-free fentanyl 25 mcg. Group B will receive one dose of spinal preservative-free 0.25% bupivacaine. Group C will receive a spinal combination of preservative-free 0.25% bupivacaine and fentanyl 25 mcg. Group D will receive spinal preservative-free 0.25% bupivacaine and epidural fentanyl 100 mcg. After the procedure, we will monitor the fetal heart rate and tocometry tracings for 20 min. Thereafter, an epidural infusion with a solution containing 0.125% bupivacaine and 2mcg/mL of fentanyl will be started. We will record demographic variables (age, and BMI), obstetric variables (parity, gestational age, cervical dilation, oxytocin infusion) and anesthetic variables (level of insertion of epidural catheter). Primary outcomes: Fetal heart rate (baseline, minimal and abnormal patterns) Secondary outcomes: - Blood pressure (systolic, diastolic and mean) measured at baseline and every 5 minutes after administration of medication. - Dermatomal level measured after 20 minutes of medication administration. - Pain level (visual analogue scale) after 20 minutes of medication administration. - Patient satisfaction level (1-10 scale) after 20 minutes of medication administration. - Uterine tone measured with tocometer at baseline and during 20 minutes after medication administration.

Comparative Study Between Two Adjuvant Drugs to Bupivacaine for Post-operative Epidural Analgesia in Abdominal Surgeries

The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of dexmedetomidin and fentanyl as adjuvants to bupivacaine for postoperative epidural analgesia in abdominal surgeries regarding block characteristics, post-operative analgesia, hemodynamic changes and any anticipated side effects. - Type of Study: Prospective randomized comparative clinical study. - Study Setting: The operating theatres of Ain Shams University Hospitals - Study Period: One year - Sampling Method: Random sampling Patients randomly allocated by computer generated randomization and using opaque sealed envelopes to one of the three study groups according to the adjuvant drug used in postoperative analgesia. - Sample Size: Total 75 cases divided into 25 cases in each group. Kiran et al. (2018) reported a rather large effect size comparing onset to sensory block and time to maximum motor block. In a one-way ANOVA study, sample sizes of 25 cases per group in three groups whose means are to be compared. The total sample of 75 subjects achieves 80% power to detect differences among the means versus the alternative of equal means using an F test with a 0.0500 significance level. The size of the variation in the means is represented by the effect size = 0.4

Comparison of Analgesic Effects According to Patient-controlled Epidural Analgesia Modes in Patients Undergoing Open Gastrectomy

Thoracic Epidural Analgesia or Four-Quadrant Transversus Abdominus Plane Block in Reducing Pain in Patients Undergoing Liver Surgery

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: I. To compare length of hospital stay between patients treated with thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) versus (vs.) pre-incision ultrasound-guided, four-quadrant transversus abdominus plane (TAP) block after open liver resection within an enhanced recovery program. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To compare the area under the curve of early (0-48 hour) post-operative pain scores and number of patients who experience severe postoperative pain between the TEA and TAP groups. II. To compare anesthetic-related complication rates and need to change modalities between TEA and TAP groups. III. To compare surgery-related complications (including 30-day readmission and 90-day mortality rates) between TEA and TAP groups. IV. To compare return to baseline symptom burden, functional and cognitive status between TEA and TAP groups. OUTLINE: Patients are randomized into 1 of 2 arms. ARM I: Patients undergo placement of thoracic epidural catheter before surgery. Patients receive hydromorphone hydrochloride and bupivacaine via thoracic epidural catheter every 10 minutes or 3 hours as needed. Patients may receive fentanyl and bupivacaine or plain bupivacaine via thoracic epidural catheter. ARM II: Patients undergo placement of ultrasound-guided, four-quadrant transversus abdominus plane block. Patients receive plain bupivacaine and liposomal bupivacaine via TAP block.