Efficacy and safety of epidural clonidine by continuous infusion or patient-controlled analgesia in labor: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND

Epidural clonidine improves analgesia but may induce adverse effects in labor.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of epidural clonidine as local anesthetics (LA) adjuvant by continuous infusion or patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) in labor.

SEARCH STRATEGY: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and CENTRAL were searched from inception to May 10, 2022 without language restriction; references of the retrieved studies were hand searched.

SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing epidural LA with and without clonidine using continuous infusion or PCEA in labor were included.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: A random effects model was used to pool the data on analgesia and adverse effects.

MAIN

RESULTS

Eight RCTs were included. Clonidine did not reduce the incidence of parturients requiring additional epidural boluses but reduced LA consumption and pain scores without increasing adverse effects, except for a higher incidence of instrumental delivery when clonidine was combined with LA and opioid (risk ratio 2.38, 95% confidence interval 1.26-4.50). Clonidine offered similar analgesia to opioids but had reduced opioid-related adverse effects. Trial sequential analysis showed that the evidence was insufficient.

CONCLUSIONS

Epidural clonidine by continuous infusion or PCEA does not increase significant adverse effects and offers similar analgesia to opioids in labor. PROSPERO registration no. CRD42022306565.