Anesthesia & Analgesia, Vol 82, 1166-1169, Copyright © 1996 by International Anesthesia Research Society
The effect of postoperative analgesia with continuous epidural bupivacaine after cesarean section on the amount of breast feeding and infant weight gain
M Hirose, Y Hara, T Hosokawa and Y Tanaka
Department of Anesthesiology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan.
The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of postoperative
analgesia on the amount of breast feeding and infant weight gain. Thirty
parturients undergoing elective cesarean section under spinal anesthesia
were randomly allocated to receive postoperative pain management with (S-E
group, n = 15) or without epidural bupivacaine (S group, n = 15). Epidural
analgesia was performed for 3 days with a continuous epidural infusion (0.7
mL/h) of 0.25% bupivacaine. Diclofenac was available on demand in all
patients. The weight of milk fed by breast and the infant weight were
measured for 11 days after cesarean section. In the S-E group, the visual
analog pain score after surgery was significantly lower and both the weight
of milk fed by breast and the infant weight during the study were
significantly more than the respective values in the S group. The S group
required a larger dose of diclofenac after the operation than did the S-E
group. We suggest that satisfactory postoperative pain relief with
continuous epidural bupivacaine for 3 days after cesarean section improved
the amount of breast feeding and the gain of infant weight.