Abstract

Background:


Regional anesthesia is being utilized as the preferred anesthetic
technique for cesarean delivery worldwide. This study was performed to
review cesarean delivery anesthetic practice in our institute which represents
a tertiary care regional hospital.


Methods:


Data was collected regarding the
number of cesarean delivery performed during the period of six months from
January 2017 to June 2017 at Western Regional Hospital. Number of elective
versus emergency cesarean delivery, mode of anesthesia and the reason for
general anesthesia and complications was recorded.


Results:


The number of
cesarean delivery was found to be 1174(26.41%) of total deliveries during
the study period. Out of which, 64.82% were for emergency indication and
35.18% were elective cesarean delivery. Spinal anesthesia was utilized in
99.03% of elective cesarean section and 97.63% of emergency cesarean
section. The percentage of cases performed under general anesthesia was
1.87%. Reasons for general anesthesia included inadequate subarachnoid
block, fetal malpresentation, eclampsia and maternal comorbidities.
Complications related to general anesthesia like failed intubation, airway
difficulty related to general anesthesia and anesthesia related mortality was
not encountered.


Conclusion:


Spinal anesthesia is utilized widely and safely
in obstetric practice at our hospital. Use of labour epidural analgesia should
be introduced and encouraged in our setting to minimize the side effects of
single shot spinal anesthesia and to avoid general anesthesia when indicated.

Keywords: Cesarean delivery, general anesthesia, regional anesthesia, spinal anesthesia