Anxiety and Phenylephrine Dosage

September 19, 2019 updated by: sharonorbach, Rabin Medical Center

The Effect of Preoperative Anxiety on Phenylephrine Dosage During Cesarean Delivery Under Spinal Anesthesia, A Prospective Observational Study.

Spinal anesthesia is considered gold standard anesthetic technique of choice for cesarean delivery (1). However its use is frequently associated with maternal hypotension, which occurs in up to 71% of cases, without prophylactic treatment(2) Spinal hypotension can lead to unpleasant maternal side effects such as nausea, vomiting and dizziness. In addition, adverse effects on the neonate occur because of reduced uteroplacental blood flow resulting in impaired fetal oxygenation and fetal acidosis. As such, current research recommends the prophylactic use of vasopressors for improved maternal and fetal outcomes(3).

The international consensus statement on the management of hypotension during cesarean delivery states, that a prophylactic phenylephrine infusion is superior to bolus administration and should be dose titrated according to blood pressure parameters (4). In according to the international guidelines, in our obstetric anesthesia unit, we use a standardized spinal anesthetic regime protocol with a standardized prophylactic phenylephrine infusion at a rate of 50 mcg/min, with the vasopressor dose titrated according to every minute blood pressure parameters.

Spinal anesthesia causes maternal hypotension, resulting from a blockade of sympathetic efferent neurons. Patients with higher baseline sympathetic activation have been known to have more marked hypotension after spinal anesthesia (5, 6) Anxiety causes generalized sympathetic activation (7). In a previous research the investigators showed that preoperative anxiety assessed by VAS had a significant effect on hypotension after spinal anesthesia (8).

Study objective:

In this study the investigators aim to evaluate the effect of anxiety on the cumulative phenylephrine dosage in women undergoing cesarean delivery under spinal anesthesia with prophylactic phenylephrine infusion. The primary hypothesis is that parturients who suffer from preoperative anxiety measured by a verbal numerical scale (VNS) anxiety score and Spielberger State-Trait Inventory questionnaire, will receive higher cumulative doses of phenylephrine (resulting from higher incidence of maternal hypotension).

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Detailed Description

Methods:

This is a prospective, observational, single center study, which will be conducted at the Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson campus), Petach Tikva, Israel, a tertiary university hospital. This study Is a purely observational study, with no implication on the medical treatment provided.

Two hundred women aged 18 and above undergoing cesarean section delivery under spinal anesthesia will be enrolled after filling out an informed consent prior to surgery. Women will be requested to fill out an informed consent in the women's surgery waiting room on the day of surgery, when they aren't under any pain.

The parturients preoperative anxiety will be assessed in the women's waiting room, on the day of the surgery using two previously validated direct psychological measures of anxiety: verbal numerical scale (VNS) anxiety score (9, 10), and the Spielberger. State-Trait Inventory questionnaire (13).

Women will also be asked about nausea and vomiting during the surgery and in the post anesthesia care unit.

In according to standard departmental clinical practice, baseline blood pressure will be determined in the preoperative holding area by recording 3 times ≥ 3 minutes apart using an automated oscillometric blood pressure cuff on the arm with the patient supine with left uterine displacement, with the mean of the 3 values taken as a baseline systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Women will undergo spinal anesthesia and blood pressure will be measured evert minute during labor. Hypotension will be treated by titrating the phenylephrine infusion and by phenylephrine boluses, using a standardized algorithm according to departmental protocol. At the time of spinal injection, a phenylephrine infusion will be started at 50 mcg/min. The automated blood pressure cuff will be programmed to cycle each minute. When each new blood pressure result will appear, the phenylephrine infusion will be adjusted based on the systolic blood pressure by a standard algorithm.

Parturient's obstetric history, obstetric data and anesthetic data will be collected from each of the participant's medical file, in an anonymized way.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Anticipated)

100

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Petach tikvah, Israel
        • Recruiting
        • Beilinson Hospital
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Eran Danon

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Two hundred healthy term parturients, over 18 years old, with healthy singleton pregnancy, undergoing cesarean delivery under spinal anesthesia in Beilinson Hospital, following obtaining written informed consents forums with the ability to comply with the study requirements will be included in our study.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Healthy parturients undergoing cesarean delivery under spinal anesthesia in Beilinson Hospital.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Women in active labor
  2. Women with a twin pregnancy
  3. Women with chronic hypertension or hypertension or preeclampsia.
  4. Active medical or psychiatric disorders requiring regular medication.
  5. Women who have any contraindication for spinal anesthesia.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Women undergoing cesarean section
Women undergoing cesarean section under spinal anesthesia with prophylactic phenylephrine drip.
Spielberger. State-Trait Inventory questionnaire
verbal numerical scale (VNS) anxiety score

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Total cumulative phenylephrine dosage in women undergoing cesarean delivery under spinal anesthesia with prophylactic phenylephrine infusion.
Time Frame: During surgery -2 hours
During surgery -2 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

October 20, 2018

Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED)

October 20, 2019

Study Completion (ANTICIPATED)

October 20, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 3, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 3, 2018

First Posted (ACTUAL)

October 5, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

September 20, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 19, 2019

Last Verified

September 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 450-18

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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