American journal of perinatology
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Observational Study
The effect of neuraxial anesthesia on maternal cerebral hemodynamics.
Neuraxial anesthesia is known to reduce sympathetic tone and mean arterial pressure. Effects on cerebral hemodynamics in pregnancy are not well known. We hypothesize that cerebral hemodynamic parameters will change with respect to baseline following regional analgesia/anesthesia. ⋯ This study demonstrates that both epidural analgesia and spinal anesthesia result in measurable cerebral hemodynamic changes in normotensive term pregnancy that are likely to be clinically insignificant as they do not affect perfusion pressure or flow.