Local Anaesthetic Epidural Solution for Labour: About Concentrations and Additives

Epidural analgesia can be considered nowadays as the standard technique to relieve pain during labour. Wide information is now available about the different parameters the clinician has to choose to conduct it, namely drugs, concentrations, regimens and additives. The recently published guidelines from the American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Obstetric Anesthesia illustrate the strong improvement of knowledge in this field (ASA Task Force on Obstetric Anesthesia, 2007). Nevertheless, the actual research still focuses on the pathways to increase the efficacy/risk ratio of epidural analgesia.