Anesthetic techniques used for cesarean section at the royal medical services hospitals in 2007

ABSTRACT

To describe the different anesthetic techniques used for cesarean section at the Royal Medical Services Hospitals. We retrospectively reviewed the anesthetic techniques used for Cesarean sections performed between 1[st] of January to the 31[st] of December 2007 at Royal Medical Services Hospitals. Data collection aimed at anesthetic techniques used for scheduled and non-scheduled Cesarean sections. Out of a total of 5,314 Cesarean sections performed in the year 2007 at our institution, 81.6% were performed under general anesthesia, 18.3% under spinal anesthesia, and 0.1% under epidural anesthesia. General anesthesia still predominated in our hospitals, the percentage of general anesthesia performed by different hospitals varied from 41% to 96%. This review of anesthetic techniques used for Cesarean section shows an overuse of general anesthesia and low use of regional anesthesia. There is a need to adjust clinical practice at the Royal Medical Services Hospitals in accordance with recent scientific data