Effect of Intravenous Vitamin C on Intrapartum Maternal Fever After Epidural Labor Analgesia

Parturients who request pain relief would receive epidural labor analgesia after the obstetrician and anesthesiologist jointly evaluated and approved. The epidural catheter was inserted at the intervertebral space of either L2-3 or L3-4. 5 ml 1.5% chloroprocaine (with 1:200,000 epinephrine) as a test was delivered to parturients via the catheter. Then parturients would be observed for 5 min whether there were adverse reactions and then were given an initial dose of 10 ml ropivacaine 0.08% with sufentanil 0.3 µg/ml. After that, a patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) pump (240ml 0.08% ropivacaine with sufentanil 0.3 µg/ml) would be attached to the catheter. The pump would be set to administer an 8 ml bolus every 20 minutes and a 2 ml patient-controlled bolus with the same interval. Subsequently, trained nursing staff would take charge of the parturients and inform the obstetrician. The basic condition of parturients was monitored during the whole process. After that, parturients in each group will be administered vitamin C intravenously except the group for placebo-controlled.