Zhong HY, et al. - Researchers examined how the addition of oxycodone to ropivacaine affects epidural analgesia during labor. They randomized 80 nulliparous parturients to receive either 0.2 mg/mL oxycodone plus 0.1% ropivacaine (group A) or 0.1% ropivacaine alone for epidural analgesia (group C). Outcomes suggest the potential of epidural oxycodone for accelerating the onset of analgesia and obviously lengthening the duration of analgesia during labor without raising adverse consequences linked with the neonate. However, a higher incidence of maternal pruritus was observed with its administration.