[General anesthesia or peridural anesthesia in primary cesarean section; a comparative study].

In a prospective cooperative study of gynecologists, anaesthesiologists and pediatricians we compared the effect of continuous epidural anaesthesia (23 cases) and of general anaesthesia (24 cases) on mother and newborn. All patients were delivered in the 39. to 41. week of an uncomplicated pregnancy by primary caesarean section for breech presentation or disproportion. Nearly one third of the patients with epidural anaesthesia showed an initial transitory decrease in blood pressure- up to 25%. The mean pO2 was higher (155 mmHg) in the group with the general anaesthesia than in the group with epidural anaesthesia (88 mmHg). Corresponding values for pO2 were found in the umbilical artery (22,8 mmHg after general anaesthesia, 16,6 mmHg after epidural anaesthesia). Concerning the pH in the umbilical artery, the better results were obtained in the group with continuous epidural anaesthesia (7,3 versus 7,27). After general anaesthesia 9 children had a one minute Apgar-score below 8 versus 3 children after epidural anaesthesia; five and ten minutes after birth the Apgar scores were practically identical. The neurologic examination 15 min after delivery revealed a pathologic muscle tone in three cases after general anaesthesia and in one case after epidural anaesthesia. After 7 days all children showed a normal neurobehavior. As no severe differences between the two types of anaesthesia in the effect on mother or newborn could be seen, in uncomplicated pregnancies the choice should be left to the mother.