5. Discussion
Our study focused on safety, efficacy, and cost benefit of single-dose
spinal analgesia in comparison with epidural analgesia
during labour; it was found that single dose spinal
analgesia is an effective alternative to epidural analgesia in
controlling labour pain as duration of analgesia was better in
low dose spinal compared to epidural technique, also the overall
cost of spinal was lower compared to epidural anaesthesia.
Mazul-Sunko [11]studied the effect of low dose spinal vs epidural
anaesthesia for delivery in a randomized prospective study
on parturient evaluating effective analgesia and hemodynamic
stability of both technique, and they concluded that epidural
analgesia has disadvantage of slow onset and higher rate of
instrumental delivery, while spinal anaesthesia in stander doses
causes hypotension and bradycardia which might compromise
faetal condition, but low dose intrathecal local anaesthetic or/
and opioid offers advantage of faster onset and lower incidence
of side effect. Their conclusion agreed with that in our study.
A study was performed by Riley ET etal comparing spinal
vs epidural anaesthesia for caesarean section regarding time
efficiency, costs, charges, and complications [12]. They retrospectively
reviewed the charts of patients who had received epidural
(n = 47) or spinal (n = 47) anaesthesia for non emergent
caesarean section. Patients who received epidural anaesthesia
had significantly longer total operating room (OR) times this
were caused by longer times spent in the OR until surgical incision.
Length of time spent in the post anaesthesia recovery unit
was similar in both groups. Supplemental intraoprative intravenous
(i.v.) analgesics and anxiolytics were required more often
in the epidural group (38%) than in the spinal group (17%)
(P < 0.05). Complications were noted in six patients with epidural
anaesthesia and none with spinal anaesthesia (P < 0.05).
Average per-patient charges were more for the epidural group
than for the spinal group. They conclude that spinal block may
provide better and more cost-effective anaesthesia for uncomplicated,
elective caesarean sections. Their conclusion agreed
with our study as regard effectiveness and cost benefit of spinal
vs epidural, in spite of difference in procedure.
Ng et al. [9] carried out a study to assess the relative efficacy
and side-effects of spinal vs epidural anaesthesia in women
having caesarean section. 751 women included in the study received
0.5% bupivacaine as the local anaesthetic for both
spinal and epidural groups; they concluded that both spinal
and epidural techniques are shown to provide effective anaesthesia
for caesarean section. Both techniques are associated
with moderate degrees of maternal satisfaction. Spinal anaesthesia
has a shorter onset time, but treatment for hypotension
is more likely if spinal anaesthesia is used. Their conclusion
agreed with ours as regard rapid onset of anaesthesia with
spinal technique, but the difference in results between their
study and ours is due to difference in the used local anaesthetic
drug, dose difference, also difference in the type of the operative
procedure than ours.
Minty RG et al. examines the safety and efficacy of singledose
spinal analgesia during labour [13]. Medline was searched
and the references of 2 systematic reviews and a meta-analysis
were reviewed to find articles on obstetric analgesia and pain
measurement. The literature supports use of spinal anaesthesia
as a safe and effective alternative to epidural anaesthesia; they
concluded that single-dose spinal anaesthesia is useful alternative
to epidural analgesia for appropriately selected patients,
their conclusions agreed with the conclusion in our study.