PEDIATRICS Vol. 101 No. 3 March 1998, pp. 490-494
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To the Editor.
We read with interest the report of Lieberman et al1 regarding the relationship of the duration of epidural analgesia and fever in labor. We have had a long-held hypothesis regarding this relationship based on both the study of Fusi et al2 in 1989 and a retrospective study we performed and presented as a poster at the Society for Pediatric Research in 1990.3
Our prior study closely agrees with the conclusions in the Lieberman
study. We analyzed computerized data on all 1909 infants admitted to
the special care nurseries for a 30-month period, delivered by our
obstetrical service with 60% epidural use. Fever in labor was found in