CLINICAL TRIAL article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Obstetric and Pediatric Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1586393
Title： Effects of dezocine with ropivacaine on epidural analgesia during labor: a randomized controlled trial
Provisionally accepted
- 1Tongxiang Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Jiaxing, China
- 2Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background Adding μ-opioid receptor agonists to local anesthetics are usually used for labor analgesia, while they are associated with pruritus. Kappa opioid agonists (dezocine) are widely used for pain management. Recently, they have emerged as a novel type of potent antipruritic agents. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dezocine with ropivacaine on epidural analgesia during labor. Methods A total of 120 parturients were randomly divided into two groups (60 cases each). The group D received 0.1% ropivacaine with dezocine 0.2 mg/ml for epidural analgesia while the control group received 0.1% ropivacaine with sufentanil 0.4 µg/ml for epidural analgesia. The systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) were monitored. The onset time and duration of analgesia, pain intensity, Bromage scores, delivery outcome, neonatal Apgar scores, and adverse events of mothers and neonates were recorded. Pain intensity was assessed using visual analogue scale (VAS). Umbilical arterial blood was collected for analysis. Results The incidence of itching was lower in the group D than the control group (0 vs. 10%, P = 0.036). The duration of analgesia was longer in the group D (76.1±9.7 vs. 72.1 ± 10.5 min, P = 0.032), and numbers of boluses were fewer in the group D (median, 2 vs.3, P = 0.018). The onset time of analgesia and VAS values were similar between the two groups (all P > 0.05). There were no significant differences in terms of hypotension, bradycardia, motor block, respiratory depression, fetal acidosis, nausea and vomiting between the two groups. Conclusion This study indicated that the epidural use of dezocine increased the analgesic effect, prolonged the duration of analgesia and decreased the incidence of itching during labor without increasing adverse events of mothers and neonates. (Registration number: ChiCTR2000035341).
Keywords: Dezocine, epidural, Labor analgesia, Sufentanil, Itching
Received: 02 Mar 2025; Accepted: 15 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Su, Qian, Wangping, Hou and Shen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yi Shen, Tongxiang Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Jiaxing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.