Abstract:
Introduction: Trend analysis in anesthesia is one way of evaluating previous practice and projecting future performance. Obstetric anesthesia is being challenged currently due to changes in population character. This shifts obstetric anesthetic practice worldwide in favor of regional technique.
Methods: A cross sectional study design was used to see anesthetic practice in obstetrics. Information on Sociodemographic variables and other variables of interest were collected from anesthesia and obstetric log books. These documents were reviewed after getting ethical clearance from the Gondar University’s Ethical review board and permission letter from UOG clinical director’s office. All mothers for whom caesarean section was done within 15 years period were included in this study, Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS version 16 and excel 2007, charts and graphs were used to summarize the results.
Result: A total of 4398 mothers under gone caesarean section within 15 years, from this 2887 (65.6%) were operated under GA and the rest 34.4% were operated under spinal anesthesia. There was a sudden shift of obstetric anesthesia from general anesthesia to spinal anesthesia starting from 2000 and the dominance of General anesthesia over spinal anesthesia re emerged starting from 2004 onwards.
Conclusion: General anesthesia is still the predominant anesthetic technique in obstetric practice in University of Gondar hospital. Anesthetic technique for caesarean section needs to be revised in University of Gondar hospital based on trends of rest of the world.
The objective of this study is to assess the type of anesthesia used for obstetric practice over the period of 15 years in Gondar university teaching Hospital and trends in anesthetic professionals’ qualification.
