Comparison of Surgical Conditions in Cesarean Section Under General Anesthesia With Deep Neuromuscular Blockade Versus Succinylcholine

Summary

Cesarean delivery under general anesthesia is one of few only surgical procedures, where the most important factor of safety is the speed of the surgery, as a newborn adaptation strongly depends on a time between induction to the general anesthesia (and administration of anesthetics) and pennywort ligation. The shortest possible interval is essential for the amount of anesthetics crossing placenta into the fetal circulation.

The primary objective:

To compare surgical conditions for fetus delivery in Cesarean section under general anesthesia with deep neuromuscular blockade versus standard procedure with succinylcholine.

The primary safety objective:

To compare influence of different levels of neuromuscular blockade and surgical conditions on newborn adaptation after the Cesarean delivery.

The secondary objectives:

To compare influence of deep versus no/shallow muscle blockade during the entire Cesarean section on surgical conditions for suture of the uterus and the abdominal wall with attention to blood loss, time of surgery and surgical complications.

To describe pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of deep neuromuscular blockade by rocuronium over the course of Cesarean section and its reversal by sugammadex at the end of procedure.

Clinical hypotheses:

The use of deep muscle blockade in Cesarean section under general anesthesia, including the period of fetus delivery, compare to the standard recommended practice with succinylcholine, will improve the surgical conditions and allow faster and easier delivery of the fetus with positive effect on its postnatal adaptation. Faster delivery will reduce an incision to delivery interval with decrease of time between anesthetics administration and delivery. This will reduce the amount of anesthetics crossing the placenta to the fetal circulation. Both, reduced amount of anesthetics and reduced incision to delivery interval itself will improve a newborn adaptation after Cesarean delivery.

Deep neuromuscular blockade will also improve surgical conditions for the whole surgery, when no or shallow only neuromuscular blockade is routinely used. We assume that deep neuromuscular blockade during the entire surgery will create better surgical conditions for faster and easier uterus suture and the rest of surgery and thus reduce perioperative blood loss and incidence of surgical complications.

Conditions

• Cesarean Section

Interventions

DRUG

Rocuronium

Rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg will be used as muscle relaxant to allow intubation during induction into general anesthesia and to induce deep neuromuscular blockade for the surgery. Deep neuromuscular blockade will be maintained until the suture of fascia of musculus rectus abdominis.

DRUG

Succinylcholine

Standard induction into general anesthesia with succinylcholine 1 mg/kg will be performed. No other muscle relaxant will be administered during the Caesarean section until surgeon would request it. In that case, according to general standards, dose of atracurium 0.25 mg/kg will be administered.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• General University Hospital, Prague

  collaborator OTHER

• Charles University, Czech Republic

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jan Blaha, MD, PhD · Charles University, Prague

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-08-16

Primary Completion

2016-12-30

Completion

2018-04-03

Countries

• Czechia

Study Locations