Increased neonatal risk from the use of general anesthesia in emergency cesarean section. A retrospective analysis of 374 cases.

Three hundred seventy-four consecutive cases of cesarean section were reviewed retrospectively for differences in neonatal outcome with respect to method of anesthesia used. In 205 elective sections no difference in neonatal outcome was observed irrespective of anesthesia method. However, in 169 nonelective operations the proportion of neonates needing respiratory assistance at birth was twice as high in the group who received general anesthesia as in the group who received epidural anesthesia (25.3% vs. 12.8%). These preliminary results suggest that general anesthesia may increase the degree of central depression of the fetus already compromised by hypoxia before surgery. An investigation of this question on other sets of data and in a prospective trial should be done.