The preemptive effect of regional anesthesia on post-cesarean section pain.

BACKGROUND

The treatment of post-cesarean section (C/S) pain is very important. Since no previous report discussed the preemptive effect of regional anesthesia on post-C/S pain, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of the preemptive effect of regional anesthesia on post-C/S pain.

METHODS

Ninety parturients scheduled for C/S were enrolled into one of the three groups (n = 30, per each group). The parturients in group 1 and 2 received spinal anesthesia and epidural anesthesia, respectively, while those in group 3 received general anesthesia for C/S. Postoperative patient-controlled analgesia, by means of intravenous morphine, was used for all paturients to relieve post-C/S pain. The VAS of pain and total morphine consumption were evaluated in all 3 groups of patients.

RESULTS

The results showed that groups 1 and 2 consumed less morphine than that of group 3. Also, there was no difference between groups 1 and 2 in the amount of morphine consumed. The incidence of side effects was significantly higher in group 3 than in groups 1 and 2.

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrated that spinal or epidural anesthesia reduced the need of parenteral morphine postoperatively when compared with general anesthesia. We suggest that the use of regional anesthesia may provide a better preemptive effect for post-C/S pain.