Ropivacaine Continuous Wound Infusion Versus Intrathecal Morphine for Postoperative Analgesia After Cesarean Delivery

Cesarean delivery is one of the most common surgical procedures, performed at an increasingly high rate. It is associated with intense postoperative pain that may hamper the rehabilitation process and interfere with patient satisfaction and care provided to the newborn. Therefore, control of perioperative pain with multimodal regimens using local anesthetic may be important in short- and long-term convalescence after surgery. Opioid-based regimens are the "gold standard" of cesarean delivery analgesia. However, spinal and epidural opioids have a ceiling effect. Wound infiltration with local anesthetics has been used widely in the multimodal approach of pain relief. Continuous wound infusion with local anesthetic through a multiorifice catheter increases the duration of action and efficacy of local surgical wound infiltration compared with a one-time wound injection of local anesthetic. After cesarean delivery, Local anesthetic continuous wound infusion would be associated with better reduction in pain scores when compared to intrathecal morphine . Therefore, an assessor and patient blinded, randomized study that aimed to compare the efficacy and side effects of these analgesia techniques was conducted.