COMPARISON BETWEEN NIFEDIPINE AND RITODRINE AS AN EFFECTIVE TOCOLYTIC AGENT FOR PRETERM LABOUR

Background: Preterm labour is not uncommon and its incidence is 10% of all the pregnancies. It can be a cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Of many available tocolytic agents, ritodrine is frequently used but it can leads to maternal and fetal complications which include tachycardia or hypertens-ion. Nifedipine is considered to avoid from these complications. However, its efficacy is still under debates. Objectives: The objective of the study was to com-pare the efficacy of nifedipine with ritodrine in tocolysis of preterm labor. Study Design: It was a randomized controlled trial. Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at unit 111 Lady Willingdon Hospital Lahore and duration was one year from 1.1.2014 to 31.12.2014. Methodology: One hundred and twenty patients were randomly divided in two equal groups. Group A patients were given nifedipine and in group B received ri-todrine for prolongation of labor. The two groups were compared with each other for efficacy. Data was collected on a specially designed Performa. Results: The efficacy of nifedipine was 71.1% and ritodrine was 31.1%. The results were statically signi-ficant (p-value 0.05). Conclusions: Nifedipine was proved to be more effective than ritodrine and the results were statistically significant