Healthcare
No matter how we manage our health, efficacy, risks and costing are top concernsNifedipine less effective than terbutaline to aid external cephalic version
While nifedipine mainly used as an antianginal and antihypertensive with its benefits and side effects, some suggestion also indicated this agent for preterm birth.
However, based on current systematic review of three clinical trials that all involved women with a single fetus in term breech or transverse presentation, compared with terbutaline (a betamimetic), using the calcium antagonist nifedipine as anti-contraction medications seem less effective in facilitating external cephalic version.
According to current researchers, their finding were surprising, because from studies in this field, nifedipine had demonstrated for the effectiveness, positive impact on perinatal outcomes, and reduced adverse effects when compared to terbutaline.
Despite several possibly limitation of the study included two of the trials used terbutaline (therefore it is unclear if the findings can be generalized to all betamimetics) and secondary trial outcomes were not amenable to pooled analysis and nifedipine and terbutaline doses differed in the two trials, published in BJOG on December 24, 2010, according to the researchers from Australia, their review found “no evidence to support the use of nifedipine for tocolysis to facilitate external cephalic version.”
In addition, compared with placebo, minor side effects of nifedipine use were slightly higher than terbutaline.
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