Comparison of Bolus Intravenous Ephedrine and Phenylephrine for Maintenance of Arterial Blood Pressure in Caesarean Section During Spinal Anaesthesia

CONTEXT (BACKGROUND) following spinal anaesthesia is a common problem. Preloading with IV Fluids alone is not sufficient, because treated hypotension during Caesarian section causes undue effects on both mother and fetus. So concomitant use vasopressor drugs to treat spinal hypotension proved useful and well established. compare the efficacy of intravenous phenylephrine versus intravenous ephedrine for correction of intra operative hypotension spinal anaesthesia for elective as well as emergency caesarean sections. randomized controlled study of patients undergoing surgery under spinal anaesthesia for elective and emergency caesarean . & MATERIALS present study includes 100 patients divided into two groups each of 50 patients. Group P (Phenylephrine group), Group E (Ephedrine group.) The baseline heart rate, systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressures were measured. Whenever Hypotension ( fall in BP >20% of baseline or less than 90 mm of Hg )occurred, Group P received Phenylephrine 40 mcg and Group E received 6 mg Ephedrine as intravenous bolus. ANALYSIS done using Student’s t test and Mann-Whitney test. ‘p’ value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant & CONCLUSION in a dose of 40 microgram is more efficacious in comparison to Ephedrine 6 milligrams in maintaining arterial pressure following hypotension after spinal anaesthesia in Caesarean section. Phenylephrine has a quicker peak effect (within 2 minutes of IV bolus) as compared to Ephedrine (within 10 minutes of IV bolus) APGAR Score at 1 and 5 minutes is in both Group P and Group E.