The Journal of international medical research
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Historical Article
Changes in obstetric anaesthesia in the last twenty-five years.
The last twenty-five years have provided a continuing success story in the achievement of satisfactory obstetric analgesia. Maternal mortality and morbidity from general anaesthesia has not decreased substantially. Mothers still run the same risk of inhalational pneumonitis and are even more likely to suffer the distressing experience of awareness. It must, however, be admitted that general anaesthesia for child-birth has brought increasing benefits to the new born during the last twenty-five years.
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Anaesthesia is now an important cause of maternal death. Most deaths which occur in association with anaesthesia are preventable. ⋯ There remains the possibility of pulmonary irritation due to food particles, bile salts and even the antacid itself. The role of difficult or failed tracheal intubation is emphasized in the causation of hypoxia and the pulmonary aspiration of stomach contents.