Abstract: Objective · To explore the clinical feasibility of a new kind of improved epidural catheter used in labor analgesia. Methods · A total of 144 patients who were spontaneous labor and required epidural labor analgesia Jan. to Aug. 2018 in the International Peace Maternity & Child Health Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine were selected, and randomly divided into three groups. The improved epidural catheters were used in epidural catheterization in group A, the Arrow FlexTip Plus epidural catheters were used in group B, and the conventional epidural catheters were used in group C (control group). The incidences of epidural venous injuries and intravascular insertion, paresthesia, subarachnoid insertion, unilateral block, difficult insertion, repeated re-insertion, loss of resistance feeling, difficult extubation and catheter damage in the three groups were recorded. Fisher exact test was used to compare the difference among the above indexes in the three groups, and then Dunnett t test was further used to compare the differential indicators between each two groups. Re-insertion with improved epidural catheter in group B and group C and its success rate were also recorded. Results · Compared with group C, the incidences of epidural venous injuries and intravascular insertion (P0.002), difficult insertion (P0.000) and repeated re-insertion (P0.006) in group A were decreased significantly. Compared with group B and group C, the incidence of loss of resistance feeling was also decreased significantly (P0.021，P0.000). Conclusion · Compared with the conventional epidural catheter, the improved epidural catheter can effectively reduce the incidence of epidural venous injuries and intravascular insertion, difficult insertion and loss of resistance feeling, and improve the success rate after repeated re-insertion, which has the potential value in clinical use.

Key words: epidural catheter, labor analgesia, complication of epidural analgesia