comparing the painlessness effects of spinal (sufentanil) and epidural (bupivacaine plus lidocaine) analgesic methods in labour and delivery

background and purpose: this study was designed in order to compare the effects of spinal and epidural analgesia on labour and also several maternal and fetal factors in vaginal delivery. materials and methods: the study was a randomized clinical trail and participatnts were 120 gravid 1 and gravid 2 women in the active phase of delivery, admitted to the labour room of fatemieh hospital in hamedan in 1381-1382. sixty patients were randomly divided into two groups of 30, analgesia was induced by single spinal sufentanil injection in one group and, bupivacaine plus lidocaine injection in the other group. maternal vital signs and pain score were recorded (vas) at 1, 5, 15 and 30 minutes after administration of analgesia and every 30 minutes thereafter. fetal heart rate every 15 minutes, vaginal examination every hour, urinary output every 4 hours after delivery and the incidence of headache and back pain, one week after delivery were the variables under study. results: both groups were matched regarding demographic, gravida and parity factors. there was no significant difference between groups regarding pain score, (based on vas),duration of the first and second delivery phase, the incidence of fetal distress, meconium excretion, apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes after delivery, abnormal laboar, operative or assisted delivery. average analgesic duration was longer in spinal analgesia than single epidural injection analgesia. conclusion: considering the difficulty of the technique, the need for anaestheticianhs supervision and injection repeatition in epidural analgesia, it seems that spinal analgesia is a suitable replacement which is more practical, less expensive, easy to perform and induces a desirable analgesia.