Prediction of Local Anaesthetic Dosing During Labour Epidural Analgesia

Epidural analgesia is the gold standard for controlling labour pain. However, labour pain happens during neuraxial analgesia, due to anaesthetic, obstetric, maternal factors.

The investigators hypothesized that relevant variables, able to predict the local anaesthetic (LA) requirement during labour, can be identified at admission and each parturient may therefore be accordingly classified in "low-requirement" and "high-requirement". In this way, a predictive score may be developed, and the analgesic regimen may be matched to the individual patient, thus ensuring a timely and appropriate treatment of patients likely to require higher doses of LA, while minimizing potentially side effects of excessive treatment in the low-dose group.