Phenylephrine to obtund Oxytocin-induced Hemodynamic Changes during caesarean section

Aim: To compare mean hemodynamic changes in patients receiving phenylephrine as co-administration with oxytocin in elective caesarian section. Study Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Department of anesthesia, Nishtar hospital Multan. Duration of Study: Dec-2017 to May-2018. Methods: A total number of 70 patients who underwent elective cesarean section (CS) under spinal anesthesia were included in this study. Group I: was allotted to patients in whom phenylephrine was administrated just prior to the administration of oxytocin and Group II: was allocated to the patients in whom a 3 ml injection of normal saline was given prior to oxytocin administration. Mean hemodynamic changes were measured in terms of changes in systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart rate in every patient before administration of oxytocin and after 3 minutes. Mean changes in SBP and Heart rate was measured. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS v 20.0. Independent sample t-test was used to compare mean change in systolic blood pressure and heart rate between the groups. Results: Mean age of patients included in this study was 28.10 +/- 4.85 years. There were 4(5.7%) females who were having eclampsia during pregnancy and 5(7.14%) females were having gestational diabetes mellitus.Mean change in SBP was more in placebo group -8.13 +/- 18.02 versus -0.43 +/- 8.35 mmHg in phenylephrine group (p-value 0.04). Mean change in heart rate was 5.8 +/- 13.81 beat/min as compared to -14.06 +/- 11.39 beats/min in phenylephrine group (p-value <0.001). Conclusion: Phenylephrine significantly obtund oxytocin-induced changes in systolic blood pressure and heart rate (in terms of tachycardia) during caesarean section.