• Tom Bleeser, Lennart Van Der Veeken, David Basurto, Ignacio Valenzuela, Arjen Brenders, Lucas Van Hoof, Doaa Emam, Simen Vergote, Marc Van de Velde, Sarah Devroe, Jan Deprest, and Steffen Rex.
• From the Department of Anaesthesiology, UZ Leuven (TB, M-VdV, SD, SR), Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Group Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven (L-VH, TB, M-VdV, SD, SR), Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UZ Leuven (L-VDV, DB, IV, DE, SV, JD), Department of Development and Regeneration, Cluster Woman and Child, Group Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven (L-VDV, DB, IV, DE, SV, JD), Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UZA, Antwerp (L-VDV), Faculty of Medicine, KU Leuven (AB), Department of Cardiac Surgery, UZ Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (L-VH), Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospitals Tanta, Egypt (DE) and Institute for Women's Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom (JD).
• Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2022 Jun 1; 39 (6): 511-520.

AbstractIn pregnant women, anaesthesia-induced hypotension is commonly treated using phenylephrine or noradrenaline, the rationale being to maintain uterine perfusion pressure and thereby uterine blood flow. Evidence for this strategy during general anaesthesia for nonobstetric surgery is absent. To analyse the effects of treating anaesthesia-induced hypotension with noradrenaline on brain development of rabbit foetuses of mothers subjected to general anaesthesia for nonobstetric surgery. We hypothesised that treatment of maternal hypotension would improve foetal outcomes. Randomised controlled laboratory study using 21 pregnant rabbits (does) at 28 days of gestation. Two hours of sevoflurane anaesthesia for a laparotomy without treatment of anaesthesia-induced hypotension (hypotension group) or with maintaining maternal mean arterial pressure above 80% of the awake value using noradrenaline (noradrenaline group). In the control group, does remained untouched. At term, all pups were delivered by caesarean section. One day later, the neurobehaviour of the pups was assessed and brains were harvested. Neuron density in the frontal cortex for the comparison of noradrenaline groups versus hypotension groups was the primary outcome; the neurobehavioural scores and other histological outcomes were secondary outcomes. In the noradrenaline groups and hypotension groups, neuron density in the frontal cortex was similar (1181 ± 162 versus 1189 ± 200 neurons mm-2, P  = 0.870). However, significantly less foetal survival, lower sensory scores in neurobehavioural assessment and less proliferation were observed in the noradrenaline group when compared with the hypotension group. Neuron densities in other regions, total cell densities, biometrics and synaptogenesis were not affected. There were no differences between the control group and hypotension group. During general anaesthesia for nonobstetric surgery in rabbits, treatment of anaesthesia-induced hypotension using noradrenaline did not affect neuron densities but was associated with impaired foetal outcomes according to several secondary outcome parameters. Further studies are needed to investigate any clinical relevance and to determine the target blood pressure in pregnant women during general anaesthesia.KEY POINTSIn pregnant women, anaesthesia-induced hypotension is commonly treated using phenylephrine or noradrenaline, with the rationale to maintain uterine perfusion pressure and thereby uterine blood flow.Evidence for this strategy during general anaesthesia for nonobstetric surgery is absent.We investigated the effects of treating anaesthesia-induced hypotension with noradrenaline on the brain development of rabbit foetuses, of mothers subjected to general anaesthesia for nonobstetric surgery.We hypothesised that treatment of maternal hypotension would improve foetal outcomes.Neuron densities were similar but significantly less foetal survival, impaired neurobehaviour and less proliferation were observed after treatment of anaesthesia-induced hypotension with noradrenaline, compared with untreated hypotension.Copyright © 2022 European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.

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