A retrospective cohort study assessing association between unplanned epidural labor analgesia and epidural catheter failure

We evaluated whether unplanned labor analgesia is associated with epidural catheter failure. This was a single-center retrospective cohort study. A tertiary care perinatal center. Pregnant women who received epidural labor analgesia between September 2018 and 2022. No interventions were performed in this study. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the association between unplanned labor analgesia and catheter failure after adjustments for covariates. Our study included 1620 patients, among whom 232 (14.3%) experienced epidural catheter failure. Multiple logistic regression showed that unplanned labor analgesia was associated with catheter failure after adjustment for clinically relevant covariates (odds ratio 1.59, 95% confidence interval 1.05–2.42). Unplanned labor analgesia was associated with epidural catheter failure. This finding suggests that clinical circumstances at the time of epidural placement, such as urgency or limited preparation, may influence technical success.