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

Table 3

Uterine EMG activities in three groups.

	Control	Levobupivacaine	Ropivacaine	P value
	n = 69	n= 66	n= 78
Duration (s)	44.92 ± 2.15	52.04 ± 3.30	49.35 ± 1.46	0.66
Number of bursts (n)	3.65 ± 0.13	3.64 ± 0.14	3.49 ± 0.07	0.05
RMS (mV)	0.09 ± 0.01	0.05 ± 0.004	0.06 ± 0.01	<0.001
Power (nV^2)	7.69 ± 1.37	3.42 ± 0.59	6.19 ± 1.31	0.005
Peak frequency (Hz)	0.43 ± 0.01	0.42 ± 0.01	0.45 ± 0.01	0.03

RMS: root mean square. Data are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean.
Table 3 shows uterine EMG activities of the three groups. The RMS (P<0.001) in the control group was significantly higher than those in the levobupivacaine and ropivacaine groups. Both the control and ropivacaine groups had a higher power than the levobupivacaine group (P=0.005). There were no significant differences in the duration or number of bursts among the groups (P>0.05).
P<0.001 vs levobupivacaine or ropivacaine group.
P<0.05 vs levobupivacaine group.
P<0.05 vs control or levobupivacaine group.