Effects of different anesthesia methods on maternal and neonatal outcomes in pregnant patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the effects of different anesthesia methods on maternal and neonatal outcomes in pregnant patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Methods: We searched PubMed, Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE), Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang and QVIP for investigating the effects of general anesthesia (GA) and local anesthesia (LA) in pregnant patients with PAH. Results were expressed as weighted mean difference (WMD) or risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Publication bias was assessed by the Begg's test.

Results: Totally, 18 articles containing 628 LA and 481 GA patients were involved in our study. The postoperative blood oxygen saturation (WMD = - 4.040, 95%CI: - 5.505 to - 2.576) and maternal mortality rate (RR = 0.507, 95%CI: 0.300-0.858) were lower in LA group than those in GA group. The postoperative systolic blood pressure (WMD = 15.647, 95%CI: 13.294-18.000) and postoperative diastolic blood pressure (WMD = 6.758, 95%CI: 5.715-7.802) were high in LA group compared with those in GA group. The mechanical ventilation time (WMD = - 4.112, 95%CI: - 4.655 to - 3.569), ICU admission time (WMD = - 4.176, 95%CI: - 4.523 to - 3.828), length of stay (WMD = -7.289, 95%CI: -7.799-6.779) were shorter in LA group than those in GA group. All P values were < 0.05.

Conclusions: LA is superior to GA in regards to the postoperative blood oxygen saturation, the postoperative systolic blood pressure, postoperative diastolic blood pressure, the mechanical ventilation time, ICU admission time, length of stay and the maternal mortality rate.

Registration number: osf.io/juybq ( https://osf.io/search/ ).

Keywords: Cesarean section; General anesthesia; Local anesthesia; Maternal outcome; Neonatal outcome; Pulmonary arterial hypertension.