• Yair Binyamin, Phillip Heesen, Igor Gruzman, Alexander Zlotnik, Alexander Ioscovich, Ariel Ronen, Carolyn F Weiniger, Dmitry Frank, Eyal Sheiner, and Sharon Orbach-Zinger.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Soroka Medical Center, and Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
• Isr Med Assoc J. 2021 Jul 1; 23 (7): 408-411.

BackgroundOur hospital used to perform cesarean delivery under general anesthesia rather than neuraxial anesthesia, mostly because of patient refusal of members of the conservative Bedouin society. According to recommendations implemented by the Israeli Obstetric Anesthesia Society, which were implemented due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, we increased the rate of neuraxial anesthesia among deliveries.ObjectivesTo compare the rates of neuraxial anesthesia in our cesarean population before and during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.MethodsWe included consecutive women undergoing an elective cesarean delivery from two time periods: pre-SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (15 February 2019 to 14 April 2019) and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (15 February 2020 to 15 April 2020). We collected demographic data, details about cesarean delivery, and anesthesia complications.ResultsWe included 413 parturients undergoing consecutive elective cesarean delivery identified during the study periods: 205 before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and 208 during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We found a statistically significant difference in neuraxial anesthesia rates between the groups: before the pandemic (92/205, 44.8%) and during (165/208, 79.3%; P < 0.0001).ConclusionsWe demonstrated that patient and provider education about neuraxial anesthesia can increase its utilization. The addition of a trained obstetric anesthesiologist to the team may have facilitated this transition.

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