Background and Aims Low blood pressure is one of the most common complications following spinal anesthesia for elective cesarean section (C-section). Fasting has been considered by some authors as a contributing factor¹. Our study tested the hypothesis that oral rehydration, 2 hours before a C-section, would reduce the incidence of hypotension and the use of vasopressor agents.

Methods Twenty-six patients, admitted for a C-section, after a simple uncomplicated pregnancy, were included in this prospective randomized study. Patients have been fasted since midnight the day before the operation. In the first group, the fast is maintained until the intervention (control group); in the 2nd group, patients received 400 ml of a preoperative rehydration solution, 2 hours before anesthesia (rehydration group). Any decrease in systolic blood pressure (SBP) of more than 20% from the patient‘s baseline SBP or the use of a 3 mcg bolus of norepinephrine was considered as a hypotensive episode. Primary endpoint of the study was defined as the incidence of at least one hypotensive episode occurring between the spinal anesthesia and cord clamping.

Results The two groups of patients were comparable (table 1). The incidence of hypotensive episodes, their number and the amount of norepinephrine used were not different between the groups. Maternal satisfaction was comparable.

Conclusions Under the conditions of our study, preoperative rehydration does not reduce the incidence of hypotensive episodes during spinal anesthesia for C-section. These results are to be confirmed after inclusion of the total number of patients expected (50 per group)