Epidural clonidine analgesia in obstetrics: Sheep studies

Abstract

Epidural clonidine administration produces analgesia by a nonopiate, spinal mechanism, and offers advantages over other epidural agents for labor analgesia. To examine clonidine's acute maternal and fetal effects, the authors injected clonidine, 300 μg, epidurally in seven chronically prepared, near term ewes. Unlike epidural saline injection, clonidine increased maternal and fetal serum glucose (by 178±30% and 190±30%, respectively; mean ±SEM, P