Objective To evaluate the efficacy of intravertebral analgesia for external cephalic version. Methods We electronically searched The Cochrane Library (Issue 4, 2009), PubMed (1980 to 2009), Ovid MEDLINE (1950 to 2009), Ovid EBM Database (1991 to 2009), EMbase (1980 to 2009), CBM (1978 to 2009) and CNKI (1979 to 2009) to collect literature about intravertebral analgesia for external cephalic version. We screened randomized controlled trials (RCTs) according to the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data and evaluated the quality of the included studies, and then performed meta-analyses by using RevMan 5.0.13 software. Results Seven RCTs involving 620 women met the inclusion criteria. Five trials were of relatively high quality, and 1 of low quality and 2 not clear. The result of meta-analyses showed that intravertebral analgesia was superior in external cephalic version with a RR 1.53 and 95%CI 1.24 to 1.88. Conclusion Intravertebral analgesia can increase the successful rate of external cephalic version in the treatment of breech presentation compared with intravenous medicine for systematic use or no analgesia.
