ET 50 for Post Caesarean Section Spinal Hypotension

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2014-05-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: Female

Summary

Hypotension is extremely common after induction of spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery. Anesthetic blockade of the sympathetic outflow of the spinal cord causes vasodilation, and is one cause of this hypotension. The higher the spread of the blockade will result in a higher incidence of hypotension. Injected hyperbaric medication has about 15 minutes to spread within the intrathecal space before it will be taken up by the nerve roots. The time that a patient remains in one position after medication injection will affect the spread of the resultant anesthetic block. A patient who is left sitting for a longer period of time after injection of hyperbaric medication will have a lower level of block than someone who is placed supine immediately. In this study, the investigators wish to use up down sequential analysis to determine the time period a patient should remain seated after intrathecal injection of hyperbaric bupivacaine that will result in a 50% rate of hypotension.

• Phase: Phase 2
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: McGill University Health Center; McGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre
• Treatments: Bupivacaine

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients 18 years or older, presenting for scheduled cesarean delivery to the C7 birthing centre.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unable to communicate in English or French

• Multiple gestations

• Patients with hypertension

• Patients with contraindications to any drug or techniques used in the study

• BMI > 35