Anesthetic management of laboring parturients with Arnold-Chiari type I malformation poses a difficult challenge for the anesthesiologist. The increase in intracranial pressure during uterine contractions, coughing, valsalva maneuvers, and expulsion of the fetus can be detrimental to the mother during the process of labor and delivery. No concrete evidence has implicated high cerebral spinal fluid pressure on maternal and fetal complications. The literature on the use of neuraxial techniques for managing parturients with Arnold-Chiari is extremely scarce. While most anesthesiologists advocate epidural analgesia for management of labor pain and spinal anesthesia for cesarean section, we are the first to report the use of combined spinal-epidural analgesia for managing labor pain in a pregnant woman with Arnold-Chiari type I malformation. Also, we have reviewed the literature and presented information from case reports and case series to support the safe usage of neuraxial techniques in these patients.

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(Int J Obstet Anesth. 2018;35:26–32) Traditionally, transversus abdominis plane (TAP) blocks are performed percutaneously by anesthesiologists using ultrasound guidance to prevent damage to intra-abdominal structures or injection into the incorrect plane. However, ultrasound-guided blocks pose potential problems, particularly in obese patients or patients with poor muscular tone, where visualization may be difficult. There have been reports of puncturing intraperitoneal structures during the performance of these blocks. In addition, ultrasound-guided blocks may be time consuming. An alternative to this method is surgeon-administered intraoperative TAP blocks, which eliminate the risk of intraperitoneal injury since they are performed under direct visualization. This study aimed to compare surgical TAP blocks with conventional TAP blocks in patients undergoing cesarean delivery.

Previous studies have suggested that electronic medical records (EMR) can lead to a greater reduction of medical errors and better adherence to regulatory compliance than paper medical records (PMR). In order to assess the organizational performance and regulatory compliance, we tracked different clinical pertinence indicators (CPI) in our anesthesia information management system (AIMS) for 5 years. These indicators comprised of the protocols from the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), elements of performance (EP) from The Joint Commission (TJC), and guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). A comprehensive AIMS was initiated and the CPI were collected from October 5, 2009 to December 31, 2010 (EMR period) and from January 1, 2006 to October 4, 2009 (PMR period). Fourteen CPI were found to be common between the EMR and PMR periods. Based on the statistical analysis of the 14 common CPI, there was a significant increase (p < 0.001) in overall compliance after the introduction of EMR compared to the PMR period. The increase in overall compliance was significantly progressive (p = 0.013) from year to year over 2006 and 2010. Of the 14 CPI, Documentation of a) medication doses, and b) monitoring of postoperative physiological status, mental status, and pain scores showed significant improvement (p < 0.001) during the EMR period compared to the PMR period.

Transverse abdominis Plane blocks (TAP) provide effective postoperative analgesia following surgical incisions of the lower and middle abdominal wall, including those associated with cesarean section. This study investigated the efficacy of liposomal bupivacaine diluted with 0.25% bupivacaine administered in bilateral TAP blocks for post-operative analgesia after Cesarean section preformed under neuraxial anesthesia. The patients who received the TAP blocks with liposomal bupivacaine had noticeably low pain scores of 1.0 ± 1.4, 1.4 ± 2.1, 1.7 ± 1.9, 1.9 ± 3.3 and 1.9 ± 2.3 at 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours respectively. Only 3 patients used oxycodone (5 mg)/acetaminophen (325 mg) postoperative. One patient took two tables of oxycodone (5 mg)/acetaminophen (325 mg) after 24 hours, a second patient used oxycodone (5 mg)/acetaminophen (325 mg) after 72 hours and the third patient was transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) since she developed postpartum cardiac complications, and was give oxycodone (5 mg)/acetaminophen (325 mg) despite having a 0 pain score. These results suggest that patients treated bilateral TAP blocks with a mixture of liposomal and regular bupivacaine will have low pain scores, high patient satisfaction and reduce the use of postoperative narcotics.