A comparison of the effects of ENTONOX inhalation and spinal anesthesia on labor pain reduction and apgar score in vaginal delivery: a clinical trial study.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of ENTONOX inhalation and spinal injection on the reduction of labor pain, the Apgar score of the neonates, and their side effects on new-born children and pregnant women.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The present clinical trial study is conducted among the pregnant women in the maternity ward of a child delivery hospital in Iran. All Participants were divided in two groups ENTONOX Inhalation and Spinal Anesthesia. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was implemented to measure the pain level experienced by the participants during the procedure. Moreover, the Apgar scale was used to measure the general physical health of the neonates in both groups. In addition, the participants receiving ENTONOX were asked to report the side effects they underwent during gas inhalation. However, the participants in the spinal anesthesia were checked three times. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 22.

RESULTS: The findings showed that the spinal anesthesia technique was significantly more effective than gas inhalation in that it reduced as much as 3 points more than did the inhalation (P-value: 0.001). Moreover, the comparison of the mean Apgar scores showed that the mean Apgar score of the neonates of spinal anesthesia mothers was 0.36 point lower than that of the neonates in the gas inhalation group. However, this difference was not statistically significant at P- value = 0.06.

CONCLUSIONS: the result of the present study indicated that spinal anesthesia was more effective than ENTONOX inhalation in reducing the labor pain.