ON THE COVER:
The dural puncture epidural technique may improve analgesia quality by confirming midline placement and increasing intrathecal translocation of epidural medications. This would be advantageous in obese parturients with increased risk of block failure. In this issue of Anesthesiology, Tan et al. test the hypothesis that quality of labor analgesia will be improved with dural puncture epidural compared to standard epidural technique in obese parturients. In an accompanying editorial, Segal and Pan describe the evolution of the dural puncture epidural technique and conclude that the overall impact of this technique on the quality of labor analgesia is modest at best. Cover Illustration: A. Johnson, Vivo Visuals Studio.
Tan et al.: Quality of Labor Analgesia with Dural Puncture Epidural versus Standard Epidural Technique in Obese Parturients: A Double-blind Randomized Controlled Study, p. 678
Segal and Pan: Dural Puncture Epidural for Labor Analgesia: Is It Really an Improvement over Conventional Labor Epidural Analgesia? p. 667
