The Influence of the Mode of Anesthesia on the Neonatal Well Being After the Caesarian Delivery

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the influence of the mode of anesthesia on the neonatal out come after
the caesarian delivery.
Material and Methods: All the patients who were going to have a caesarian section were
enrolled to the trial & their demographic data along with the Apgar Score and need for the NICU
(Neonatal intensive care unit) admission, was entered in a specially designed proforma. After the
data collection ( from 1st March 2010 to 28th February 2011) The data was entered in SPSS
version 19 & was analyzed statistically.
Results: There were 1308 caesarian deliveries out of which 59.6% (n=779) were delivered
electively while 40.4% (n=529) had an emergency delivery. The rate of general anesthesia versus
spinal anesthesia was the same i.e. 59.2% (n=199) & 59.7% (n=580) respectively in elective
delivery group & 40.8% (n=137) & 40.3% (n=392) respectively in emergency delivery group & this
difference was found statistically in significant. The Apgar Score of the neonates delivered to
patients having general anesthesia was significantly poor as compared to the spinal anesthesia
group & the rate of NICU admission is also high in general anesthesia group i.e. 10% (n=34) as
compared to 5.8% (n=56) this difference is also statistically very significant (P=0.018).
Conclusion: Spinal anesthesia is associated with better neonatal outcome as compared to
general anesthesia in both emergency and elective C/Section group