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Abstract
Background and Aims Epidural anesthesia has been optimal for pain management in obstetric anesthesia for over 20 years. This anesthetic is placed between L3-L4 of the lumbar region, it allows expecting mothers to be anesthetized from the lower back to the upper portion of the legs. Spinal nerves are numbed which blocks the pain signals, but pressure sensation is present. Through various research studies, it has come to light that women have suffered from lower back pain post-delivery. Our goal is to determine the correlation between epidural anesthetic and chronic lower back pain in women who have given birth.
Methods Cross sectional study comparing data presented in six different studies ranging from 1990 through 2019. Studies were selected using The National Library of Medicine media sources. Sources used had more than 6,000 patients total and also included criteria that evaluated the presence of an epidural and pain patients felt in the lower back. Excluded from these studies were time frames in which results from surveys for back pain were obtained vary significantly between studies.
Results Based on the obtained data from previous research studies, it cannot be determined if an epidural is the main cause of lower back pains in women postpartum.The graphs demonstrate no significant difference between women who had an epidural and those that did not receive an epidural.
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Conclusions To conclude, more research studies would need to be done or reviewed in order to determine that the anesthetic epidural is the cause of lower back pain in women.