Publication:

An observational study of parenteral paracetamol vis a vis tramadol as labour analgesics

Background Labour although a physiological process, is associated with severe, excruciating pain. The delivery of the infant into the arms of a conscious and a pain free mother is one of the most exciting and rewarding moments in medicine ……..Moir. Labour analgesia plays an important role in making the process of labour comfortable for the mother. Drugs like paracetamol and tramadol with advantages of easy availability, being inexpensive and with no special technique of administration are a boon for labour analgesia. Our study aims to evaluate the efficacy of these two drugs as labour analgesics.

Methods Sixty cases in active labour fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected for this study. All primigravidae at term gestation with singleton pregnancy having vertex presentation with no associated obstetric/ medical/surgical risk factors in spontaneous labour were selected. There were thirty patients who received Paracetamol as labour analgesic and thirty were in the tramadol group. It was an observational study.

Results The study revealed that paracetamol had a significant analgesic effect compared to tramadol at the fourth and the fifth hour of administration. However, the overall analgesic effect of both the drugs had no statistically significant difference. Maternal side effects and neonatal distress were less with paracetamol.

Conclusions This study showed that paracetamol had a better side effect profile for both mother and neonate along with a comparable, if not better, analgesic effect vis a vis tramadol.