Intrapartum ultrasound monitoring of malposition and malrotation during labor neuraxial analgesia: maternal outcomes.

This study analyzes the important role of ultrasonography (IUS) related to the maternal outcomes in women with fetal persistent occiput posterior position (POPP) and asynclitism (A) in labor neuraxial analgesia (LNA). Prospective assessment of 148 primiparous women diagnosed with the prolonged second stage of labor. Transabdominal and transperineal IUS were used to detect fetal head position and to evaluate the angle of progression (AOP) and pubic arch angle (PAA).

Coagulation abnormalities and severe intraventricular hemorrhage in extremely low birth weight infants.

Background: The association between intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and coagulation in infants has been a subject of controversy. Only few publications assessing risk factors for development of IVH reported results of coagulation studies.

Objectives: To evaluate the levels of coagulation and fibrinolysis systems in ELBW infants and determine their influence on IVH.

Running an obstetric anesthesia training program: words of wisdom.

Obstetric anesthesia, by definition, is a subspecialty of anesthesia dedicated (devoted) to peripartum, perioperative, pain and anesthetic management of women during pregnancy and the puerperium. Today, obstetric anesthesia has become a recognized subspecialty of anesthesiology and an integral part of practice of most anesthesiologists. Perhaps no other subspecialty of anesthesiology provides more personal gratification than the practice of obstetric anesthesia.

Postpartum convulsions and acute hemodynamic instability in the parturient with recent amphetamine intake.

Amphetamine is one of the most common substances abused in pregnancy and one of the most potent sympathomimetic amines with respect to stimulatory effects on the central nervous system. I present a case of an amphetamine abusing parturient who developed postpartum convulsions and acute hemodynamic instability initially mistaken for eclampsia.