Feto-maternal safety of intracervical sodium nitroprusside application in sheep

The feto-maternal safety of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) administration in the cervix of pregnant sheep is evaluated. Chronically catheterized pregnant sheep at approximately 0.9 gestation were divided into 2 groups that received 0.1 mg/kg maternal body weight of SNP gel (2%) or placebo into the internal cervical os. SNP or placebo gel was administered at 9 AM with both maternal and fetal blood gas/pH, and cardiovascular parameters were monitored for 6 hours. Except for a slight transient decrease of maternal oxygen and meta-hemoglobin content, and fetal oxygen content in the SNP group, no other significant changes were observed. However, such changes are minimal and unlikely to be of any clinical significance. Moreover, nitric oxide metabolites were unchanged in both maternal and fetal circulations.These data demonstrate few, if any, effects of intrauterine SNP administration on both cellular oxygenation and cardiovascular indexes. Thus, SNP treatment, once applied into the cervix, could be considered a safe procedure.