{"title":"General anesthesia for maternal surgery during pregnancy: dogmas, myths and evidence, a narrative review","authors":"T. Bleeser, M. Van de Velde, S. Rex, S. Devroe","doi":"10.56126/75.1.08","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Up to 1% of pregnant women require general anesthesia and maternal non-obstetric surgery during pregnancy, of which urgent abdominal procedures are most commonly indicated. This narrative review summarizes several dogmas and myths on the management of general anesthesia during pregnancy and the corresponding evidence. While historical studies found delayed gastric emptying during pregnancy, recent evidence concluded that gastric emptying remains nearly normal during the entire pregnancy until the onset of labor. To correctly estimate the aspiration risk, gastric ultrasound should be increasingly performed. Based on the available evidence, the application of cricoid pressure should be discouraged during rapid sequence induction of pregnant women. A cuffed endotracheal tube is traditionally recommended, but laryngeal masks have been used in > 9000 patients undergoing cesarean section without observation of aspiration. All material to manage a difficult airway should be available as difficult intubation remains an ongoing concern in obstetrics. Risk factors for difficult intubation are nonobstetric in nature. Due to the lack of evidence for hemodynamic management, it is not possible to make an evidence-based recommendation. We recommend to adhere to the expert opinion of maintaining maternal blood pressure close to the normal physiologic value by using (15°-)30° left lateral tilt position, intravenous fluids and noradrenaline or phenylephrine. Most recent clinical observational studies suggested to consider laparoscopic over open surgery as a standard treatment for abdominal surgery. While animal studies observed impaired fetal brain development after prenatal anesthesia exposure, this could not be confirmed by an observational clinical study.","PeriodicalId":7024,"journal":{"name":"Acta anaesthesiologica Belgica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Acta anaesthesiologica Belgica","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.56126/75.1.08","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"ANESTHESIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Up to 1% of pregnant women require general anesthesia and maternal non-obstetric surgery during pregnancy, of which urgent abdominal procedures are most commonly indicated. This narrative review summarizes several dogmas and myths on the management of general anesthesia during pregnancy and the corresponding evidence. While historical studies found delayed gastric emptying during pregnancy, recent evidence concluded that gastric emptying remains nearly normal during the entire pregnancy until the onset of labor. To correctly estimate the aspiration risk, gastric ultrasound should be increasingly performed. Based on the available evidence, the application of cricoid pressure should be discouraged during rapid sequence induction of pregnant women. A cuffed endotracheal tube is traditionally recommended, but laryngeal masks have been used in > 9000 patients undergoing cesarean section without observation of aspiration. All material to manage a difficult airway should be available as difficult intubation remains an ongoing concern in obstetrics. Risk factors for difficult intubation are nonobstetric in nature. Due to the lack of evidence for hemodynamic management, it is not possible to make an evidence-based recommendation. We recommend to adhere to the expert opinion of maintaining maternal blood pressure close to the normal physiologic value by using (15°-)30° left lateral tilt position, intravenous fluids and noradrenaline or phenylephrine. Most recent clinical observational studies suggested to consider laparoscopic over open surgery as a standard treatment for abdominal surgery. While animal studies observed impaired fetal brain development after prenatal anesthesia exposure, this could not be confirmed by an observational clinical study.
期刊介绍:
L’Acta Anaesthesiologica Belgica est le journal de la SBAR, publié 4 fois par an. L’Acta a été publié pour la première fois en 1950. Depuis 1973 l’Acta est publié dans la langue Anglaise, ce qui a été résulté à un rayonnement plus internationaux. Depuis lors l’Acta est devenu un journal à ne pas manquer dans le domaine d’Anesthésie Belge, offrant e.a. les textes du congrès annuel, les Research Meetings, … Vous en trouvez aussi les dates des Research Meetings, du congrès annuel et des autres réunions.