Study Comparing Phenylephrine Bolus and Infusion for Maternal Hypotension and Neonatal Outcome during Cesarean Section under Spinal Anesthesia

Phenylephrine(PE) bolus and infusion have been compared for post spinal hypotension and neonatal effects during cesarean section(CS) under spinal anesthesia(SA). The primary aim of this study was to compare bolus doses of 50μg of PE with a fixed infusion rate of 50 μg/min of the same drug given prophylactically. The secondary aim was to study the neonatal outcome and side effects with the two regimes. This prospective,randomized,comparative study was conducted in the department of Anesthesia in a tertiary care teaching hospital. This study was conducted on 100 normotensive women undergoing CS under SA. The patients were randomized into two groups of 50 each. Group A received bolus of 50 μg PE after the systolic BP(SBP) fell by 20% from the baseline and Group B received a prophylactic infusion of 50 μg/min PE. The changes in heart rate (HR), BP and side effects were compared till delivery. The neonatal APGAR scores were compared at 1 and 5 minutes and an umbilical artery sample was sent for blood gas analysis. Categorical variables were shown in number and percentage. Normally distributed continuous variables were presented as mean ± SD and compared using unpaired -test. Non normally distributed continuous variables were displayed as median and were compared using Mann-Whitney test. A value of