Abstract
Local anesthetic agents are commonly used for obstetric anesthesia and analgesia.
We determined the effects of bupivacaine, ropivacaine and mepivacaine on the contractility
of isolated pregnant rat uterine muscle strips. Uterine specimens were obtained from
18- to 21-day pregnant Wistar rats (n=28). Myometrial strips were obtained from the uterine horns after removing the fetuses
and non-uterine tissue, incubated in organ baths and contractions stimulated with
oxytocin. When contractions became regular, strips were exposed to increasing concentrations
of the study drugs. Mepivacaine (n=8), ropivacaine (n=10) and bupivacaine (n=10) were used at cumulative doses from 10−8 to 10−4 mol/L. Two of the local anesthetics, bupivacaine most, ropivacaine least, caused
a dose-dependent inhibition of uterine contractility. In contrast, mepivacaine significantly
increased uterine contractility. Bupivacaine, ropivacaine and mepivacaine were found
to have no effect on frequency of uterine contractions. These results demonstrate
that bupivacaine and ropivacaine may inhibit myometrium contractility.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
October 1,
2003
Identification
Copyright
© 2004 Elsevier Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
