Obstetric anesthesia/analgesia does not affect disease course in multiple sclerosis: 10‐year retrospective cohort study

Objectives Multiple sclerosis (MS) often occurs in young women and the effect of obstetric anesthesia/analgesia on the disease is poorly understood. No previous study has investigated the course of the disease in women in labor in the Czech Republic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence or absence of relapses in the 6‐month postpartum period in MS parturients with and without obstetric anesthesia/analgesia. Materials and Methods We retrospectively studied all deliveries (n = 58,455) at the University Hospital Brno from 2004 to 2013 and identified those of the women with an ICD‐10 code G35 (MS) recorded anytime in their medical history (n = 428). We included only deliveries of women with confirmed diagnosis at the time of labor (n = 70). Statistical analysis was performed using the Fischer Exact Test. Results There were 70 deliveries of 65 women, including 45 vaginal deliveries and 25 Cesarean deliveries (16 under general anesthesia, 8 with epidural anesthesia and 1 with spinal anesthesia). Epidural obstetric analgesia was performed in 11 deliveries. There was no statistically significant difference in relapses between the vaginal delivery group (n = 15; 33%) and Cesarean section group (n = 10; 40%), p = 0.611. Conclusion Neither delivery mode (vaginal vs Caesarean) nor type of obstetric anesthesia/analgesia was found to have any impact on the course of MS at 6 months postpartum in women with this condition. We aimed to describe occurrence or absence of relapses in 6‐month postpartum period in multiple sclerosis parturients with and without obstetric anesthesia/analgesia. The most important finding of our study was that relapse occurrence (RO) after labor does not depend on either type of delivery or type of anesthesia for C‐section (CS). There was also no impact of epidural obstetric analgesia on presence of RO.