OBJECTIVES: The study investigates changes of anaesthesia practice in obstetric patients of a University Hospital over a six years' period. METHODS: Between 1993 and 1998 data of 7476 deliveries were collected by the perinatal documentation system of the Obstetric Department and by computerized anaesthesia protocols of the Department of Anesthesiology. Since combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia with sufentanil was introduced in 1997, all patients with subarachnoid techniques were prospectively examined between 1997 and 1998. RESULTS: While the total number of deliveries decreased over the years, the number of patients undergoing anaesthetic treatment increased continuously. In parallel, the number of patients with regional anaesthesia increased between 1993 and 1998 from 14.3% to 34.8%. The cesarean delivery rate increased from 23.7% to 28.7% with an increasing number of patients receiving regional anaesthesia for cesarean section (1993: 25.3% vs. 1998: 62.1%). The number of emergency cesarean deliveries performed in regional anaesthesia increased to 19.3% in 1998. The number of neonates with an umbilical artery pH below 7.2 decreased from 18% in 1993 to 11% in 1998. The success rate of regional anaesthesia increased from 88.2% in 1993 to 97.5% in 1998. Combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia provided greater pain reduction when compared with epidural anesthesia (VAS -81 +/- 12 vs. -68 +/- 18). Early vasopressor administration resulted in a decrease of hypotension from 40% to 14% in spinal and from 21% to 13% in combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia. The incidence of postdural puncture headache after subarachnoid anaesthesia was 2.4%. DISCUSSION: Epidural and subarachnoid application of sufentanil appears to enhance the success rate of obstetric regional anaesthesia. Subarachnoid techniques such as spinal or combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia showed a high effectiveness, low incidence of side effects and high degree of patients' satisfaction.
