Abstract: Objective To investigate the effects of sufentanil in relieving postoperative pain on the persons who had received epidural anesthesia. Methods One hundred and twenty ASAⅠ-Ⅱ pregnant women undergoing epidural anesthesia were enrolled in this study. They were divided into 3 groups: The ones who had epidural anesthesia with Sufentanil (group A). The ones who had intravenous anesthesia with Sufentanil in advance (group B) and the ones without any preemptive analgesia (group C). The visual analogue scale (VAS) score, sedation score (Ramsay), and the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting were observed respectively at each time point. Results Depending on visual analogue scale (VAS) and score sedation scores (Ramsay) at each time point and the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting, the results of group A were better than that of group B and C, the difference had statistical significance (P<0.05). Conclusion Sufentanil can reduce the pain which the person had epidural anesthesia obviously, it can also be good to reduce the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting. The patients are satisfied with this approach, which is worthy widely applied in clinical practices.

Key words: Sufentanil, epidural, cesarean delivery, preemptive analgesia, patient satisfaction