Author(s)

Heba Omar Ahmed^*, Mona Hossam, Abdelmonem Adel

Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.

Background: Spinal anesthesia is used for 95% of planned cesarean sections in the United States. It provides a fast and profound sensory and motor block. However, hypotension is a very common complication of spinal anesthesia during cesarean section, causing significant morbidity and mortality. It could be associated with severe nausea, vomiting and even unconsciousness and pulmonary aspiration in the mother and for the baby, hypoxia, acidosis, and neurological injuries may result. Methodology: Fifty patients were randomly allocated into two groups. Group I (F group) patients received preloading with 15 ml/kg Ringer lactate before induction of spinal anesthesia, and group II (E group) patients received IV ephedrine (5 mg in 1^st minute after spinal anesthesia and 5 mg in the 2^nd minute and 1 mg every minute after that for 15 minutes). Results: A statistically significant difference in the incidence of hypotension between group F (48%) and group E (24%) was seen, (p-value 0.03). Regarding side effects, the incidence of nausea and vomiting was higher in the group F (20%) when compared to group E (12%), (p-value 0.23). Conclusions: We concluded that IV infusion of ephedrine after induction of spinal anesthesia was more effective than crystalloid preloading in a prevention of hypotension in parturient undergoing cesarean section and did so without causing significant tachycardia.

Hypotension, Spinal, Cesarean Section, Ephedrine

Ahmed, H. , Hossam, M. and Adel, A. (2016) Volume Preload versus Ephedrine Infusion for Prevention of Hypotension Due to Spinal Anesthesia for Cesarean Section. Open Journal of Anesthesiology, 6, 37-44. doi: 10.4236/ojanes.2016.63006.