Anesthesia for Operative Caesarean Section Delivery

- Glossary

Basic Principles and Terminology

The following definitions are used For the purposes of these guidelines:

➡️Anesthesiologist: the term anesthesiologist in this document is used to designate all licensed medical practitioners with privileges to administer anesthetics, surgical intensive care, pain management, perioperative care, and resuscitation.

➡️Anesthetic: is the deliberate performance of any procedure to render a patient temporarily insensitive to pain or to the external environment so that a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure can be performed.

➡️Anxiolytic: A drug used to relieve anxiety or to treat symptoms of anxiety, such as feelings of fear, dread, uneasiness, and muscle tightness, that may occur as a reaction to stress.

➡️Coloading refers to administering IV fluids simultaneously with spinal anesthesia.

➡️Neuraxial anesthesia: is defined as intrathecal, epidural or combined spinal epidural (CSE) administration of local anesthetics and/or opioids for anesthesia, treatment of postoperative pain or other acute pain problems.

➡️Obstetric anesthesia refers to peripartum anesthetic and analgesic activities performed during labor and vaginal delivery, Caesarean delivery, removal of retained placenta, and postpartum tubal ligation.

➡️Postdural puncture headache (PDPH): A severe headache that occurs after a lumbar puncture and is caused by a leak of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as a complication from spinal needle insertion.

➡️Preloading: refers to administering a fixed volume of intravenous (IV) fluids (typically 500-1000 mL) before the induction of spinal anesthesia.