Acid-base status in diabetic mothers and their infants following general or spinal anesthesia for cesarean section.

Acid-base status was studied in 30 diabetic mothers and their infants and in 30 healthy mothers and their babies after general or spinal anesthesia for cesarean section. A normal acid-base state was found for the diabetic subjects following general or spinal anesthesia. However, the infants of diabetic mothers given spinal anesthesia had an average pH of 7.20 and a base excess value of -5.67 mEq/l in umbilical-artery blood at delivery. These values were significantly lower than those observed in the infants of the other groups, where the average pH was between 7.28 and 7.30 and the base excess between -1.87 mEq/l and 1.00 mEq/l. These findings were significantly related to maternal diabetes and maternal hypotension.