General anesthesia during pregnancy and the postpartum period

Abstract

Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women undergo surgery for nonobstetric reasons each year. Surgery and anaesthesia during pregnancy are critical since an intervention to the mother may also affect the baby. Anatomical, physiological and pharmacodynamics/pharmacokinetic changes in pregnancy, limited time for preoperative anaesthetic preparation due to the urgency of the intervention as well as dealing with two patients at the same time are challenging even for a senior anaesthesiologist. Thus, anaesthesiologists should remodify the standard anaesthetic protocols to achieve maternal and foetal safety. In this section, an overview of the physiological changes in pregnancy, anaesthetic drugs and their maternal and foetal effects, difficult airway management, and the principles of advanced cardiovascular life support in pregnant women is presented.