Anaesthesia
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Data are presented for anaesthesia for Caesarean section (CS) in the South-west Thames region of the UK. The CS rate rose from 12.7% in 1987 to 24.2% in 2002. The rate of increase shows no sign of slowing. ⋯ This may limit the opportunities to teach other anaesthetic techniques. The rate of RA for emergency CS rose from 49.3% in 1992 to 86.7% in 2002. There is an unacceptable rate of failure of RA for both elective and emergency CS, 1.3% of RAs for elective CS and 4.9% of RAs for emergency CS were converted to general anaesthesia.