Comparing Effects of Spinal Versus General Anesthesia in Patients Undergoing Emergency Cesarean Sections: An Obstetrician’s View

Objective: to compare the maternal and neonatal effects of spinal versus general anesthesia in terms of quality of analgesia, muscle relaxation, blood loss during surgery, postoperative analgesia requirement and apgar score. study design: comparative study place and duration: department of obstetrics and gynecology, jinnah postgraduate medical centre, karachi, from july 2004 till june 2005. patients and methods: total 250 patients were included in the study. informed consent was obtained. spinal anesthesia (sa) was given to 100 patients and general anesthesia (ga) to 150 patients. maternal effects were observed in terms of quality of analgesia, muscle relaxation, blood loss and postoperative analgesia requirement. neonates were assessed by apgar score. results were analyzed through spss version 10.0. results: in the spinal group, quality of analgesia and muscle relaxation was excellent (ci=95%). blood loss and amount of blood transfusion was significantly less (p=0.001) in the spinal group. apgar score at 1 minute was better in the spinal group but the difference at 5 minutes was insignificant. postoperative analgesia requirement was also significantly less (p-value <0.001). there was one mortality due to total spinal block. conclusion: there remains no doubt that spinal anesthesia, whenever medically feasible, is superior to general anesthesia in emergency cesarean sections.