And Time. Chapman's Model Is Consistent with a Definition by Bonica Alzheimer's Disease and Anaesthesia

by Bonica of ‘acute pain is a complex constellation of unpleasant sensory, perceptual, and emotional experiences and certain associated autonomic, psychological, emotional, and behavioural responses’. Therefore with logical consequence, the definition of analgesia for labour pain is equally as complex. In our study, we attempted to evaluate the complexity of pain and analgesia focusing on a prospective assessment of several sensory modalities. We discovered that ‘pain relief’ scores demonstrated statistically significant change with the use of sevoflurane compared with Entonox. Grover and Wilkinson have suggested that either an alteration in conscious level or a tocolytic effect may have resulted in the analgesic effect. However, all the participants were fully conscious throughout the study with no amnesic effects observed. Also, a tocolytic effect would have resulted in reduced pain intensity scores as supported by a paper by Corli, which was not observed in our study. In conclusion, labour pain and its associated analgesic modalities are highly complex. We have been careful not to conclude in our paper significant analgesic effects. However, we have demonstrated and reported that the use self-administered, sub-anaesthetic sevoflurane can provide useful pain relief during the first stage of labour, and to a greater extent than Entonox.