Most preferred anaesthetic technique for both elective & emergency cesarean sections is spinal anaesthesia in a tertiary care hospital

Aim: to find out the most preferred and frequent anesthetic technique for both elective and emergency cesarean sections in a tertiary care hospital. methods: this retrospective study was conducted in anaesthesia and obstetric departments of sir ganga ram hospital lahore for elective surgery from april 2015 to march 2016 and for emergency surgery from december 2015 to april 2016. results: total 5784 cases were operated out of which 5441(94.06%) were given spinal anaesthesia,310(5.35%) were given general anaesthesia and only 33(0.57%) cases were administered epidural anesthesia for c section. in emergency 4840 cases were operated,out of which 4588(94.74%) were given sa and 252(5.2%) were given ga .whereas 944 cases were operated as elective cases,out of which 853(90.36%) were given sa,58(6.14%) were given ga and 33(3.5%) received ea. spinal anesthesia was the commonest technique used for c section both for emergency and elective cases (94.06%). comparing the two(p<0.05%) spinal anaesthesia was more common for emergency cesarean section (94.75%)as compared to elective cesarean section ( 90.36%). there was no significant difference regarding the minimum or maximum ages of patients coming for elective and emergency cesarean sections. conclusion: the most,preferred and convenient anaesthetic technique for cesarean section is the spinal anaestheisa both for elective and emergency cases unless otherwise contraindicated.