Effective control of labor pain is critical to the birthing experience. Dexmedetomidine is an alternative adjunct to labor analgesia without the risk of opioid-related adverse effects. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy and safety of neuraxial dexmedetomidine versus neuraxial opioids in labor analgesia. PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane, Google Scholar, and grey literature were searched for evidence. Risk ratio and mean difference (MD) were used to estimate outcomes. The quality of evidence was assessed using the Risk of Bias and GRADE system. Sixteen studies including 1,669 patients were analyzed. Compared with opioids, dexmedetomidine prolonged the duration of analgesia (MD, 47.58 minutes; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.57 to 93.58; P = .04), reduced pain score (MD, -0.71; 95% CI, -1.17 to -0.24; P = .003), and shortened the onset of analgesia (MD, -1.14 minutes; 95% CI, -1.93 to -0.35; P = .005). Dexmedetomidine did not affect the duration of first and second stages of labor, number of spontaneous, assisted, and cesarean delivery. Additionally, dexmedetomidine had little to no effects on maternal and neonatal outcomes. Neuraxial dexmedetomidine is more favorable than neuraxial opioids for labor analgesia. Extrapolation of the findings to clinical practice should take into considerations the review limitations.
Keywords: dexmedetomidine; fentanyl; labor analgesia; labor pain; morphine; pain.
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