Sacral sensory blockade from 27-gauge pencil-point dural puncture epidural analgesia or epidural analgesia in laboring nulliparous parturients: a randomized controlled trial.

The DPE technique with a 27-gauge pencil-point spinal needle more often provides bilateral sacral blockade at 20 min following block initiation compared with the EPL technique. The time to adequate analgesia and need for supplemental analgesia did not appear to differ between techniques.