Articles: anesthesia.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 2025
Optimal Maternal Ventilation During Laparotomy with General Anesthesia in Pregnancy in the Ovine Model.
General anesthesia during pregnancy is not uncommon, for example, for trauma surgery, cerclage, or cesarean delivery. Current recommendations are to maintain maternal partial pressure of carbon dioxide in arterial blood (paCO2) at 30 mm Hg, which is based solely on the average maternal paCO2 in awake pregnant women. However, there is no evidence that this target, compared to other targets, would enable optimal conditions for the fetus during general anesthesia. Maternal paCO2 can affect uterine blood flow, affinity of hemoglobin for oxygen, and fetal CO2 elimination. In this study, a range of potential targets of maternal paCO2 was investigated in the ovine model, aiming to determine which target is most conducive to physiological fetal blood gas values during laparotomy with general anesthesia. ⋯ This study provides experimental support for the clinical recommendation to maintain maternal paCO2 close to the physiologic value of 30 mm Hg during general anesthesia for maternal laparotomy in pregnancy as it is conducive to physiological fetal blood gas values. Given the lower bound of the 95% confidence interval, the possibility that a lower maternal paCO2 would improve fetal gas exchange cannot be excluded.