Maternity Care plan, NEED HELP PLEASE

[eacue]

Hello Nurses and fellow students I have a question;

I am working on my careplan for Maternity clinical rotation, I saw my first ever live lady partsl birth start to finish, IT WAS AWESOME (I'm a guy)!!!!!!!!!! So here goes: What is the most common type of anesthesia used during an epidural block? I know lidocain is used to numb the site prior to injection/insertion of the catheter but when I try and look it up I get a list of many different meds and combination of meds. Is it up to the Anesthesiologist in regards to preference? Is there a standard medication most use? Any help is appreciated.

Thank you very much.

[klone, MSN, RN]

It's usually a -caine type medication (Marcaine or Naropin are commonly used) mixed with an analgesic (fentanyl or Sufenta, usually). But yes, it's provider preference. They usually have one combination that they use all the time and are comfortable with.

[lovemyjoblandd]

All of our docs use Naropin as the drip. Some mix it with fetanyl, some sufenta just depending on preference.

[wilma30RN]

All of our epidurals use a fentanyl/bupivacaine mix. Most will use fentanyl for the test dose, but a few will use marcaine.

[klone, MSN, RN]

What do you mean by using it in the test dose? I thought the test dose is just epinephrine.

I know the anesthesiologist residents and CRNAs I work with at the teaching hospital have abandoned the test dose. When I first started working there 4 years ago, I indicated surprise, and one explained the rationale, but I can't remember what it was.