Choice of anesthesia technique for emergent cesarean sections during COVID-19 era in a tertiary care hospital.

Background: This study explored the change of anesthesia management for emergent cesarean sections in our tertiary care hospital in the first year of pandemic. We searched primarily for the changes in spinal to general anesthesia rate and secondarily for presented adult and neonatal intensive care needs in comparison to the year before the pandemic. We also presented the postoperative PCR tests of the emergent cesarean sections as a tertiary outcome.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed clinical data such as anesthetic technique, need for postoperative intensive care, duration of hospital stays, postoperative PCR result, and newborn status.

Results: The rate of spinal anesthesia changed remarkably from 44.1% to 72.1% after the pandemic (p=0.001). The comparison of the median duration of hospital stays of the pre-pandemic group and post-pandemic group was found significantly longer than that of the before COVID-19 group (p=0.001). The rate of need for postoperative intensive care in the after COVID-19 group was higher (p=0.058). The rate of postoperative intensive care of the newborns in the after COVID-19 group was significantly higher than that of the before COVID-19 group (p=0.001).

Conclusion: The spinal anesthesia rate for emergent cesarean sections increased significantly during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in tertiary care hospitals. Total health care services after the pandemic were enhanced as seen with elevated numbers of hospital stays, postoperative need of adult and neonatal intensive care.