Obstetrical paracervical block with chloroprocaine or bupivacaine. A comparison

Obstetrical paracervical block was randomly administered to 47 patients, using either 2% chloroprocaine or 0.25% bupivacaine. Analgesia and onset of analgesia were similar for both drugs, but the duration of chloroprocaine was only about half that of bupivacaine (35 min versus 66 min). Fetal bradycardia was encountered in one case after chloroprocaine and in two cases after bupivacaine. It is concluded that chloroprocaine plain is not very suitable for obstetrical paracervical block due to its short duration of action.