Year: 2002
Type: letter
Abstract: I read with interest the article regarding the necessity of supplementary oxygen administration for elective Caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia (Cogliano et al. Anaesthesia 2002; 57: 66–9). Their suggestion of using nasal cannulae instead of facemasks for administration of oxygen is a very good one, but one thing is not clear. Patients who became hypotensive or whose oxygen saturation fell below 93% were withdrawn. However, they do not mention how many patients were withdrawn for these reasons. We need to know the incidence of hypotension and/or low Spo2, before concluding that supplementary oxygen is unnecessary in healthy women having elective Caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia. As supplementary oxygen is essential for any hypotensive patient under spinal anaesthesia, it is really difficult to accept the authors' conclusion when all patients with unacceptable hypotension/and reduced oxygen saturation were excluded from the study. Also, the use of diamorphine in the spinal might give rise to maternal nausea/vomiting as a side-effect. As supplementary oxygen reduces the incidence of postoperative nausea/vomiting (the exact mechanism of action is not clear), surely supplementary oxygen should be routinely administered by nasal cannulae at the start (following the spinal administration). Then, depending on the effects of the spinal anaesthetic, oxygen supplementation can be continued or withdrawn accordingly. S. K. Basu Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth PO6 3LY, UK
Source: Anaesthesia
Author: S K Basu
Language: English
Subfield: Surgery
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: Kansai Medical University
OpenAlex ID: W3026391846