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Epidural anaesthesia for elective caesarean section does not influence fetal umbilical artery blood flow indices

G P Marquette1, T Mechas, J Charest

  • 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

This prospective study was completed to determine the influence of epidural anaesthesia on the fetoplacental circulation of normal subjects. Thirty-seven normal pregnant patients at term, undergoing elective Caesarean section, had Doppler measurements of the fetal umbilical artery blood flow velocity before and after epidural anaesthesia using lidocaine 2% without epinephrine. There were no differences in systolic/diastolic, resistance or pulsality indices following epidural anaesthesia. These results suggest that this technique has no adverse effect on fetoplacental circulation in normal non-labouring subjects.

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