A comparision of maintenance therapy and continuous intravenous therapy with magnesium sulfate in preterm labor pain management

The aim of this study was to compare maintenance therapy and continuous therapy of magnesium sulfate (MS) in the management of preterm labor. In this single blind randomized control trial, 70 singleton women in 26 to 34 weeks of gestation (WG), were randomly assigned to receive 4gr MS in 200cc D/W 5% during 15 to 20 minutes either infusion therapy with 20 gr MS in 10 hours (group A) or maintenance therapy with 2gr/hr MS for 12 hours.(group B). Data of the participants were collected and analyzed using SPSS13.0, Chi-Square and T test. P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The presence of labor pain after 24 and 48 hours, 1 week, and in 34 WG was statistically lower in group B than A. But it was not statistically significant in 37 WG. Duration of pregnancy and Apgar score at 5 min were significantly higher in group B than A. While, NICU admission was higher in group A than B. Maintenance therapy with 2 mg/hr MS for 12 hr is an effective therapeutic regiment for management of preterm labor pain, to stop the labor pain, which is recommend to treat preterm labor pain.