Tianjin Medical Journal ›› 2026, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (4): 364-368.doi: 10.11958/20253174

• Clinical Research • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Analysis of the interaction between the moment of fever during labor and the peak of fever in parturients with epidural analgesia and adverse neonatal outcome

DUAN Chengli1(), SHEN Yanjie2, GUO Lixia1, WANG Bihang1, ZU Xiaoxia1(), LIU Yuqiang3   

  1. 1 Department of Obstetrics, Changzhi People's Hospital/Changzhi Medical College Affiliated Third Clinical Hospital, Changzhi 046000, China
    2 Department of Anesthesiology, Changzhi People's Hospital/Changzhi Medical College Affiliated Third Clinical Hospital, Changzhi 046000, China
    3 Department of Pharmacy, Changzhi People's Hospital/Changzhi Medical College Affiliated Third Clinical Hospital, Changzhi 046000, China
  • Received:2025-10-16 Revised:2025-11-28 Published:2026-04-15 Online:2026-04-14
  • Contact: E-mail:tsyzxbg@163.com

Abstract:

Objective To explore the interaction between the time of intrapartum fever and the peak of fever in parturients with epidural analgesia and adverse neonatal outcome. Methods A total of 118 parturients with fever during labor who received epidural analgesia were included. A statistical analysis was conducted to investigate the occurrence of neonatal adverse outcomes. Logistic regression modeling was utilized to assess the independent association of intrapartum fever onset timing and peak fever magnitude with neonatal adverse outcomes, along with their potential interaction effects. Threshold effect analyse for intrapartum fever timing and peak temperature were performed using restricted cubic splines through the rms package in R version 3.6.1, generating smoothed fitting curves to visualize these relationships. Results The incidence of adverse neonatal outcome in parturients with fever during labor due to epidural analgesia was 36.44%. Older age, gestational diabetes and peak fever were all independent risk factors for adverse neonatal outcome, while later timing of intrapartum fever was a protective factor (P < 0.05). When the duration of fever during labor was shorter than 7.9 hours, the incidence of adverse neonatal outcome decreased with the delay of the duration of fever during labor. When the peak fever was higher than 38 ℃, the incidence of adverse neonatal outcome increased with the increase of the peak fever. There was a negative additive interaction between the moment of fever during labor and the peak of fever on adverse neonatal outcome. Among the adverse neonatal outcomes where the moment of fever during labor and the peak of fever coexist, 39.8% was caused by the interaction between the two. Conclusion The time and peak of fever during labor in parturients with epidural analgesia have a negative additive interaction effect on adverse neonatal outcome.

Key words: analgesia, epidural, parturition, fever, infant, newborn, the moment of fever during labor, peak fever, adverse outcomes of newborns

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