Women given remifentanil for labor pain were less likely to need a subsequent epidural compared with women given meperidine, the current standard for labor pain relief in the United Kingdom, according to a study published in the Lancet (2018;392(10148):662-672.).
“What I think the study has shown rigorously for the first time, in the context of a well-conducted, controlled trial, is that remifentanil results in progression to epidural about half as often as [meperidine], and that’s