The Effects Between Spinal and General Anesthesia for Pre-Eclamptic Mothers Underwent Caesarean Delivery in a Tertiary Care Hospital- A Comparative Study

Background: Preeclampsia is a multisystem disorder characterized by new onset of hypertension systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg and proteinuria >300 mg/24 h arising after 20 weeks of gestation in a previously normotensive woman and associated with significant maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Women with preeclampsia have an increased rate of cesarean section consequent upon the high incidence of intrauterine growth restriction, fetal distress, and prematurity. The aim of this study was to determine and compare maternal & neonatal outcome among pre-eclamptic women following caesarian delivery under general and spinal anesthesia. Material & Methods: This was a comparative observational study and was conducted in the Department of Anesthesiology of Holy Family red crescent Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from February,2020 to February,2023. In this study we included 250 preeclamptic women undergoing cesarean delivery. The patients were randomly divided into two groups – GA group (Patients who were given general anesthesia) & SA group (Patients who were given spinal anesthesia). Results: In total 250 patients from both the groups completed the study. In our study we found majority (44.8%) of our patients were aged 28-32 years. The mean age was 27.13 ± 3.76 years. Majority (62.8% ) of our patients were cases of emergency caesarean delivery & 37.2% were elective caesarean delivery classes. Most of the students (41.2%) used magnesium sulfate. Intraoperative systolic BP, diastolic BP was significantly lower in SA group than GA group. We found headache, vomiting, fever and wound gaping, postpartum hemorrhage & lower respiratory tract infection was significantly higher in GA group. On contrary, hypotension & pulmonary edema was higher in SA group. Apgar score at 1st, 5th & 10th minutes was significantly higher in GA group than SA group. In GA group, neonatal mortality at 48 h was 10.4% whereas it was 4.8% in SA group. Conclusion: In our study, we found intra-operative blood pressure and pulse rate was observed significantly higher in GA group than SA. Severe preeclamptic mothers receiving general anesthesia and their babies required more critical care support. Maternal as well as neonatal mortality was significantly higher with general anesthesia. Therefore, spinal anesthesia is a safer alternative to general anesthesia among women with severe preeclampsia following caesarean delivery with less postoperative morbidity and mortality.