A Randomized controlled trial of intramuscular pentazocine compared to intravenous paracetamol for pain relief in labor at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano
Abstract
Background: Labor is generally considered to be a very painful experience. Epidural analgesia which is the gold standard for labor pain relief is not widely available, affordable, or feasible, especially in our environment. Parenteral opioid analgesics, which are more commonly used, can cause nausea and vomiting in the patient and respiratory depression in the neonate; hence, they cannot be used in all stages of labor. There is thus the need for an alternative analgesic with similar or superior analgesic effect to opioids but without their fetomaternal side effects. Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of intramuscular (IM) pentazocine and intravenous (IV) paracetamol infusion in relieving labor pain at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano. Study Design: It was a randomized controlled study. Methodology: One hundred women with singleton uncomplicated pregnancies and spontaneous labor at term were randomly assigned to the study group or control group. Women in the study group received an IV infusion of 1000 mg of paracetamol while women in the control group received a single dose of 30 mg of pentazocine intramuscularly. Labor pain perception was assessed using visual analog scale (VAS) scores at presentation and after delivery while maternal satisfaction assessed using Likert scale, and maternal and fetal complications were recorded after delivery. Statistical analysis was done using computer software SPSS Version 20.0. Chi-square, Fisher's exact…
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Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design.
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