[Epidural anesthesia and local administration of high-dose prostaglandin in obstetrics. A dangerous combination].

Abstract

The use of high epidural anesthesia for cesarean section has generally been accepted as a safe and comfortable means of intra- and post-operative pain relief in recent years. However, the accompanying vasomotor blockade of the lower body and the sometimes impaired cardiac reflex activity restrict the use of concomitant--even local--medication. Described are the deleterious side effects on hemodynamic stability and patient comfort of an intramyometrically administered synthetic prostaglandin E (PGE2)-compound (dinoprostone) given to three female patients under high epidural anesthesia during cesarean section. Differentiation of the various symptoms is made in relation to their epidural or PGE origin or to a combination of the two. A striking therapeutic resistance of the hypotension of a sufficiently volume-expanded patient to even large doses of ephedrine is discussed as representing possible PGE-mediated suppression of peripheral norepinephrine release.