[Epidural administration of a morphine-adrenaline-bupivacaine mixture in obstetric anesthesia].

Pain relieving effect of epidurally given epinephrine-morphine-bupivacaine drug combination was studied in 50 primiparous women during labour. The double-blind, randomised clinical evaluation showed that the components of our drug combination act synergistically. The total dose and the mg min-1 dose of bupivacaine was significantly less following epinephrine-morphine pretreatment than the dose required when only bupivacaine was used for pain relief. The duration of analgesic effect of separate top-up doses was also significantly prolonged when the drug combination was used. It was established that this method of obstetric pain relief uses about 30% less bupivacaine than the classical method. This means decreased drug exposure of mother and fetus alike. In addition to this the use of this drug combination provides also a long-lasting postpartum analgesia.