Association between breakthrough labor pain, patient-controlled epidural analgesia use, and numeracy : A pilot observational study

Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd..

OBJECTIVE: Labor analgesia can be maintained with a continuous epidural infusion, supplemented by patient-controlled epidural boluses. patient-controlled epidural boluses use and timing require numeric understanding, as patients need to understand when they can administer supplemental boluses, lockout intervals, and total doses. We hypothesized that women with lower numeric literacy have a higher rate of provider-administered supplemental boluses for breakthrough pain because they do not understand the concept behind patient-controlled epidural boluses.

DESIGN: Pilot observational study SETTING: Labor and Delivery Suite PARTICIPANTS: Nulliparous, English-speaking patients with singleton, vertex pregnancies admitted for postdates (gestational age ≥ 41 weeks) induction of labor requesting neuraxial labor analgesia.

INTERVENTIONS: Combined spinal-epidural labor analgesia was initiated with intrathecal fentanyl and epidural analgesia was maintained using continuous epidural infusion with patient-controlled epidural boluses.

MEASUREMENTS AND FINDINGS: Numeric literacy was assessed using the Lipkus 7-item expanded numeracy test. Patients were stratified by whether or not they required supplemental provider-administered analgesia and patient-controlled epidural boluses use patterns were evaluated. A total of 89 patients completed the study. There were no demographic differences between patients who required supplemental analgesia compared with those who did not. Patients that required supplemental analgesia were more likely to request and receive patient-controlled epidural boluses (P<0.001). Hourly bupivacaine requirement was higher in women with breakthrough pain. There were no differences in numeric literacy between the two groups.

KEY CONCLUSIONS: Patients who required treatment of breakthrough pain had higher patient-controlled epidural boluses demands-to-delivery ratio. Numeric literacy was not correlated with the need for provider-administered supplemental boluses.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Easy to understand scripts on how to use patient-controlled epidural boluses allows for understanding of patient-controlled epidural boluses use.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:124

Enthalten in:

Midwifery - 124(2023) vom: 15. Sept., Seite 103730

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Lange, Elizabeth M S [VerfasserIn]
Kim, Jennifer [VerfasserIn]
Klumpner, Thomas T [VerfasserIn]
McCarthy, Robert J [VerfasserIn]
Wong, Cynthia A [VerfasserIn]
Thakkar, Kavisha [VerfasserIn]
Toledo, Paloma [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Anesthetics, Local
Fentanyl
Journal Article
Neuraxial labor analgesia
Numeracy
Observational Study
Patient-controlled epidural analgesia
UF599785JZ

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 21.08.2023

Date Revised 21.08.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.midw.2023.103730

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM358039835