Oxytocin alone versus oxytocin plus papaverine for labor induction in primiparous women after catheter ripening: a randomized controlled trial

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Oxytocin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To assess whether the addition of intravenous papaverine to oxytocin shortens the time to active labor in primiparous women undergoing induction after Foley catheter ripening.

Why It Was Studied

Papaverine, a smooth muscle relaxant, may enhance cervical compliance; however, its role when administered after catheter removal and at the initiation of oxytocin remains unclear.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 126 women taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, women only.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

Because people in this Oxytocin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the women nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Oxytocin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Oxytocin group a baseline to be compared against.

The primary outcome was the time from oxytocin initiation to active labor (≥6 cm cervical dilation with regular contractions).

Secondary endpoints included measures of labor progression, delivery mode, maternal complications, the duration of hospital stay, and neonatal outcomes.

All the analyses were performed under an intention-to-treat principle.

What Was Measured

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

Author keywords: cesarean delivery, labor induction, nonprogressive labor and primiparous women.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 126 women.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2026 (American journal of obstetrics & gynecology MFM), a journal based in United States.

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