Administration of Vasoconstrictor, But Not Volume Expander Prevents Maternal Hypotension During Spinal-Epidural Anesthesia For Elective Cesarean Section

Hypotension is a common side effect induced by combined spinal and epidural anesthesia (CSEA) during cesarean section [1,2]. As elective cesarean section becomes a popular procedure in obstetric delivery worldwide, higher incidence of CSEA-induced hypotension has been reported in recent years [1,3]. Prolonged hypotension during cesarean section can cause harm to mother and fetus [2]. Hence, maintaining blood pressure in normal range during cesarean section after CSEA is important and becomes a hot topic in current clinical research. A lot of factors have been shown to involve in the CSEA-induced hypotension during cesarean section [3]. Up to date, most studies focus only on a single or a few aspects of CSEA-induced hypotension during cesarean section [2-12], so the findings from these studies are less clinical value. In present study, using multiple linear regression analysis, many important factors which might potentially affect CSEA-induced hypotension during cesarean section were analyzed. Among these, we found that the continuous administration of phenylephrine is the most effective treatment for prevention of CSEA-induced hypotension during cesarean. This finding provides a safe, simple and economic approach to manage CSEA-induced hypotension during cesarean section.