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Epidural anesthesia during labor and stress incontinence after delivery
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Glostrup Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Objective:
To test the hypothesis that epidural anesthesia during labor prevents the development of stress incontinence after vaginal birth.
Methods:
We interviewed 208 primiparas about stress incontinence 3 months postpartum. The women who developed stress incontinence after delivery were interviewed again 1 year postpartum.
Results:
Twelve of 45 women (27%) who had epidural anesthesia developed stress incontinence de novo after vaginal delivery, versus 21 of 163 (13%) who did not receive epidural anesthesia, a marginally significant difference (P = .05). Those who had epidural anesthesia also had a significantly longer first stage of labor. One year after delivery, three of 42 (7%) in the epidural anesthesia group had stress incontinence, compared with five of 163 (3%) in the control group.
Conclusion:
Our results do not support the hypothesis that epidural anesthesia protects against the development of stress incontinence after vaginal delivery.
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