According to a randomized, double-blind study, the utilization of 0.1% Ropivacaine combined with 0.2 µg/mL Dexmedetomidine (DEX) in epidural analgesia offers improved pain relief, increased maternal contentment, and a lowered likelihood of pruritus when compared to using 0.1% Ropivacaine in combination with 0.3 µg/mL Sufentanil in women experiencing labor pain. Chengyi Lao et al. set out to evaluate the impact of various DEX concentrations in pregnant women who were undergoing epidural analgesia.

A total of 400 expectant mothers were selected and randomly distributed into four groups, each containing 100 participants: S0.1 (0.1 µg/mL DEX), S0.2 (0.2 µg/mL DEX), S0.3 (0.3 µg/mL DEX), and a control group (0.3 µg/mL Sufentanil). After administering analgesia, the following parameters were recorded: Maternal satisfaction, adverse reactions, bromage score, neonatal Apgar score, bleeding, delivery method, and labor duration. Notably, the S0.3 group showed a higher number of patients with a Bromage score of ≥2 and a greater occurrence of bradycardia in comparison with the other three groups.

Additionally, the satisfaction rate was reduced in the S0.3 group. Furthermore, it was observed that the S0.1 group required more instances of additional patient-controlled analgesia compared to the other three groups, and the control group also exhibited a greater frequency of pruritus in comparison to the other three groups. When delivering spinal anesthesia to alleviate labor pain, the combination of 0.1% Ropivacaine and 0.2 µg/mL DEX in epidural analgesia offers a more favorable analgesic outcome, increased maternal contentment, and a decreased likelihood of pruritus, in contrast to using 0.1% Ropivacaine plus 0.3 µg/mL Sufentanil.