Anaesthesia
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We describe the novel use of a closed-loop feedback computer-controlled infusion of phenylephrine for maintaining blood pressure in 53 patients having spinal anaesthesia for elective caesarean section. A simple on-off algorithm was used that activated an intravenous phenylephrine infusion at 100 microg.min(-1) when systolic blood pressure was less than or equal to baseline and stopped the infusion when systolic blood pressure exceeded baseline. ⋯ No patient had nausea or vomiting and in no case was umbilical arterial blood pH < 7.2. Calculated system performance parameters were comparable with those of previously published closed-loop systems and provide a reference for the potential development and comparison of more advanced algorithms.