Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Apr;60(4):234-41.
doi: 10.4103/0019-5049.179445.

Anaesthesia for non-obstetric surgery during pregnancy

Madhusudan Upadya  1 , P J Saneesh  2
Affiliations
Review

Anaesthesia for non-obstetric surgery during pregnancy

Madhusudan Upadya et al. Indian J Anaesth. 2016 Apr.

Abstract

Non-obstetric surgery during pregnancy posts additional concerns to anaesthesiologists. The chief goals are to preserve maternal safety, maintain the pregnant state and achieve the best possible foetal outcome. The choice of anaesthetic technique and the selection of appropriate anaesthetic drugs should be guided by indication for surgery, nature, and site of the surgical procedure. Anaesthesiologist must consider the effects of the disease process itself and inhibit uterine contractions and avoid preterm labour and delivery. Foetal safety requires avoidance of potentially dangerous drugs and assurance of continuation of adequate uteroplacental perfusion. Until date, no anaesthetic drug has been shown to be clearly dangerous to the human foetus. The decision on proceeding with surgery should be made by multidisciplinary team involving anaesthesiologists, obstetricians, surgeons and perinatologists. This review describes the general anaesthetic principles, concerns regarding anaesthetic drugs and outlines some specific conditions of non-obstetric surgeries.

Keywords: Anaesthesia; foetal development; non-obstetric surgery; pregnancy; teratogenicity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Decision-making algorithm for non-obstetric surgery during pregnancy
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Coleman MT, Trianfo VA, Rund DA. Nonobstetric emergencies in pregnancy: Trauma and surgical conditions. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1997;177:497–502. - PubMed
    1. Crowhurst JA. Anaesthesia for non-obstetric surgery during pregnancy. Acta Anaesthesiol Belg. 2002;53:295–7. - PubMed
    1. Marulasiddappa V, Raghavendra B, Nethra H. Anaesthetic management of a pregnant patient with intracranial space occupying lesion for craniotomy. Indian J Anaesth. 2014;58:739–41. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Trikha A, Singh P. The critically ill obstetric patient - Recent concepts. Indian J Anaesth. 2010;54:421–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mazze RI, Källén B. Reproductive outcome after anesthesia and operation during pregnancy: A registry study of 5405 cases. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1989;161:1178–85. - PubMed