Early versus late combined amniotomy and oxytocin after mechanical cervical ripening-a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The aim of this study was to compare the time to delivery between early (within 2 h) and late (after 2 h) amniotomy and oxytocin initiation in patients undergoing cervical ripening with a cervical ripening balloon (CRB).

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, women only.

For their study, the full cohort from the original trial was divided into patients who had amniotomy and oxytocin infusion within 2 h of CRB removal (study group) and patients who hadamniotomy and oxytocin more than 2 h after CRB removal (control group).

Inclusion criteria were age > 18 years, ≥ 37 gestational weeks, Bishop score < 5, singleton vertex presentation, intact membranes, and no contraindication for vaginal delivery.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and parallel-group study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Oxytocin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

The Oxytocin group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

Secondary analysis of data collected from a previous parallel randomized controlled trial comparing CRB removal after 6 versus 12 h.

Primary outcome for the current study was the time from CRB removal to delivery.

Secondary outcomes included the rate of cesarean delivery and adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Oxytocin, Cervical Ripening, Oxytocics, Labor, Induced, Amniotomy and Cesarean Section.

Author keywords: Induction of labor and double-balloon catheter.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and parallel-group study of Oxytocin.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2026 (The journal of maternal-fetal & neonatal medicine : the official journal of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine, the Federation of Asia and Oceania Perinatal Societies, the International Society of Perinatal Obstetricians), a journal based in England.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, all human trials.