Pain Perception During Chorionic Villus Sampling

Chorionic villous sampling is a frequent procedure used for antenatal genetic testing. This procedure is associated with anxiety and fear of pain that can be expected during the procedure, often prejudicing patients against this definitive antenatal testing. It is important to determine if different approaches to pain and anxiety reduction are effective. Currently there is no randomized study to evaluate the efficacy of analgesia for pain reduction during chorionic villous sampling. Multiple studies have been published suggesting that analgesia during the similar procedure of amniocentesis does not significantly reduce pain scores.