This lesson plan discusses analgesia and anaesthesia in obstetrics. It defines pain as a subjective experience and discusses non-pharmacological pain relief methods like hydrotherapy, acupuncture, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. It also discusses regional analgesia techniques like epidural analgesia, spinal analgesia/anaesthesia, and patient controlled epidural analgesia. It notes contraindications for epidural anaesthesia like infection, coagulopathy, or hypotension. Spinal anaesthesia provides anaesthesia for vaginal delivery or late in the second stage of labor. Patient controlled epidural analgesia is associated with greater satisfaction and a lower dose than continuous epidural infusion.
21. CONTRAINDICATIONS FOR EPIDURAL
ANAESTHESIA
PATIENT REFUSAL OR INABILITY TO COOPERATE .
INCREASED INTRACRANIAL PRESSURE SECONDARY TO A MASS
LESION.
SKIN OR SOFT TISSUE INFECTION AT THE SITE OF NEEDLE
PLACEMENT
FRANK COAGULOPATHY.
UNCORRECTED MATERNAL HYPOVOLEMIA (E.G., HEMORRHAGE) .
INADEQUATE TRAINING IN OR EXPERIENCE WITH THE TECHNIQUE
.
23. CONT..
SPINAL ANESTHESIA INVOLVES THE INJECTION OF A LOCAL
ANESTHETIC DIRECTLY INTO THE SPINAL FLUID,
PROVIDING ANESTHESIA FOR VAGINAL OR LATE IN THE
SECOND STAGE, WHEN THE FETAL HEAD IS ON THE
PERINEUM. IT HAS NO EFFECT ON MATERNAL OR FETAL
RESPIRATIONS BUT MAY CAUSE TEMPORARY
HYPOTENSION AND A POSTSPINAL MATERNAL HEADACHE.
25. CONT..
PCEA HAS BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH GREATER MATERNAL
SATISFACTION AS COMPARED WITH BOTH INTERMITTENT
BOLUS INJECTION AND CONTINUOUS EPIDURAL
INFUSION.
PCEA RESULTS IN A LOWER AVERAGE HOURLY DOSE OF
BUPIVACAINE THAN DOES A CONTINUOUS EPIDURAL
INFUSION OF BUPIVACAINE.
RESERVED FOR PATIENTS WHO ARE WILLING AND ABLE
TO UNDERSTAND THAT THEY ARE IN CONTROL OF THEIR
ANALGESIA.