NCT02984267

Use of Ultrasound Guidance to Assist With Labor Epidural Placement in Patients With a BMI ≥40

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 18 (actual)
• Sponsor: Thomas J. Vernon · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Placement of labor epidurals is a very common daily practice in obstetrical anesthesia. Currently, these epidurals are placed based upon palpation of landmarks to determine midline and the correct spinal level for placement. Palpation of these landmarks can be difficult, however, particularly in morbidly obese patients who have significant amounts of soft tissue overlying them. This study seeks to use ultrasound guidance to examine the spine prior to epidural placement, and see what effects this has compared to palpation alone with respect to procedure time, number of attempts, success rate in the first attempt, failure rate, complication rate, patient anxiety levels, and patient satisfaction levels.

Conditions

• Labor Pain

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Ultrasound	Using ultrasound guidance to evaluate the spine prior to epidural placement
OTHER	Palpation	Using palpation only to evaluate the spine prior to epidural placement

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-12-01
• Primary completion: 2017-04-15
• Completion: 2017-04-15
• First posted: 2016-12-06
• Last updated: 2018-07-11
• Results posted: 2018-07-11

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States