Effects of Ropivacaine in Patient-Controlled Epidural Analgesia on Uterine Electromyographic Activities during Labor

Table 1

Patient characteristics.

	Control	Levobupivacaine	Ropivacaine	P value
	n = 69	n = 66	n = 78
Age (years)	27.99 ± 0.38	28.74 ± 0.36	28.94 ± 0.36	0.16
BMI (kg/m^2)	25.23 ± 0.31	25.27 ± 0.28	26.17 ± 0.40	0.09
Gestational age (weeks)	39.40 ± 0.13	39.69 ± 0.12	39.58 ± 0.11	0.23
Multipara, n ()	7 (10.15%)	9 (13.64%)	8 (10.26%)	0.77
Oxytocin administration, n ()	18 (26.09%)	31 (46.97%)	22 (28.21%)	0.02

BMI: body mass index. Data are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean, n (%), or median (range).
Table 1 shows the patient characteristics of the three groups. The oxytocin administration rates in the control and ropivacaine groups were significantly lower than that in the levobupivacaine group (P=0.02).
P<0.05 vs levobupivacaine group.