Obsgynaecritcare

Join us as Declan and Roger discuss the evidence for routine table tilt during elective caesarean section.   Has this changed your practice? What is your opinion on this topic? We’d love to read your emails.  As mentioned in the episode we would love to do a future episode on Q&A so if you have any questions on any topic you would like us to tackle please send them in! Send your comments / questions to: obsgynaecritcare@gmail.com References Hughes EJ, Price AN, McCabe L, Hiscocks S, Waite L, Green E, Hutter J, Pegoretti K, Cordero‐Grande L, Edwards AD, Hajnal JV. The effect of maternal position on venous return for pregnant women during MRI. NMR in Biomedicine. 2021 Apr;34(4):e4475. Couper S, Clark A, Thompson JM, Flouri D, Aughwane R, David AL, Melbourne A, Mirjalili A, Stone PR. The effects of maternal position, in late gestation pregnancy, on placental blood flow and oxygenation: an MRI study. The Journal of physiology. 2021 Mar;599(6):1901-15. Higuchi H, Takagi S, Zhang K, Furui I, Ozaki M. Effect of lateral tilt angle on the volume of the abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava in pregnant and nonpregnant women determined by magnetic resonance imaging. Anesthesiology. 2015;122(2):286-293. Fujita N, Higuchi H, Sakuma S, Takagi S, Latif MA, Ozaki M. Effect of right-lateral versus left-lateral tilt position on compression of the inferior vena cava in pregnant women determined by magnetic resonance imaging. Anesthesia & Analgesia. 2019 Jun 1;128(6):1217-22. Aust H, Koehler S, Kuehnert M, Werdehausen R, Schleppers A, Reese PC, Reyher C. Guideline-recommended 15° left lateral table tilt during cesarean section in regional anesthesia—practical aspects: an observational study. Int J Obstet Anesth. 2016 Aug;27:47-53. Crawford JS, Burton M, Davies P. Time and lateral tilt at Caesarean section. Br J Anaesth. 1972 May;44(5):477-84. Lee AJ, Landau R, Mattingly JL, Meenan MM, Corradini B, Wang S, Goodman SR, Smiley RM. Left lateral table tilt for elective cesarean delivery under spinal anesthesia has no effect on neonatal acid–base status: a randomized controlled trial. Anesthesiology. 2017;127(2):241‑249. Jackson KL, Smiley RM, Lee AJ. Neonatal acid-base status before and after discontinuing routine left uterine displacement for elective cesarean delivery: a retrospective cohort study (2014–2017). Int J Obstet Anesth. 2025;62:104350. You need to add a widget, row, or prebuilt layout before you’ll see anything here. 🙂

Hypothetical Case: You are called to MFAU to see a woman who has just arrived via RFDS (royal flying doctor service) She is a 23 y.o indigenous woman from the Kimberley in the far north of WA. She is 33/40 G1P0 complex social history and possible substance use disorders She has PPROM (pre term premature rupture of membranes) and suspected early chorioamniotis and has been given antibiotics / nifedipine and a few litres of crystalloid fluid during the flight. The obstetric team have evaluated her – she has small for gestational age baby, and is complaining of dyspnoea. Her observations are: HR 110, NIBP 124/60, SpO2 91% on room air, T38.1 Her bloods are relatively normal except for an unexpected high BNP. You do a focussed bedside transthoracic ECHO and unexpectedly see on the PLAX (parasternal long axis view) a classical hockey stick / domed appearance of severe mitral stenosis. She also has Pulmonary B-lines (indicating pulmonary oedema) and a flattened interventricular septum, very large atrium & doppler through the tricuspid valve confirms severe pulmonary hypertension. The team decides she would be better cared for in a hospital with cardiothoracic services – however she suddenly becomes more breathless – SpO2 86% on oxygen, NIBP 80/40 HR 125, and there is a prolonged foetal bradycardia………………… Hi Everyone, This week I am joined by Dr Clinton Ellis, a cardiothoracic anaesthetist based in Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and Graeme. We discuss the management of rheumatic heart disease in pregnancy – a challenging condition which unfortunately is still relatively prevalent amongst indigenous women here in Australia. This was a wide ranging discussion so I have decided to split this into two 40min episodes. Even though we talk for over 80min I feel like we just scratched the surface on this! If you have any questions or comments send them through – I will try and get Clinton to answer them. Finally a huge shout out and thank you to the Darwin based authors of the ANZCA 2023 Blue Book article on this condition: Namrata Jhummon-Mahadnac, Matthew Mathieson, and Akshay Hungenahally! See the link to their well written narrative review on this topic below: References Australasian Anaesthesia 2023 (aka the Blue Book) – see page 39 “Obstetric anaesthesia in rheumatic heart disease – a unique perspective from the Top End” Oral vaccine could prevent rheumatic heart disease in NZ VIDEO: Researchers close to a vaccine for strep-A and rheumatic heart disease

Hi everyone, Sepsis is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in our patients. It is common but can be difficult to diagnose, challenging to manage and sometimes downright scary. After being inspired by listening to an episode from “The Critical Care Commute Podcast” (with Dr Mervyn Singer a UK intensivist involved in sepsis 3.0), Graeme and I sit down to discuss some of these thought provoking areas of sepsis which are controversial and are still actively being researched. Thanks again Graeme! References The Critical Care Commute Podcast

Hi everyone, This week Declan and I sit down to discuss a novel non opioid analgesic drug recently approved for use by the FDA, suzetrigine. What is it? How does it work? Why should we be interested in this new class of drugs and most importantly will it live up to it’s hype? References Suzetrigine: First in a New Class of Nonopioid Analgesics for Acute Pain. Anesthesiology 142(6):p 989-991, June 2025. | DOI: 10.1097/ALN.0000000000005465 – Unfortunately this is not a free article but well worth a read if you can get to it through your hospital or college library. The accompanying podcast of this editorial is open access – follow the following link. podcast Suzetrigine Drug-Drug Interactions: Perioperative Anesthesia Considerations to Enhance Patient Safety

You are called to assess a pregnant woman who presents to your hospital complaining of shortness of breath. She is 36 weeks pregnant with twins and tells you she had been getting progressively short of breath over the last month but put it down to the physical effects of the twin pregnancy in her abdomen. However last night she couldn’t get her breath lying flat, had to sleep sitting up on 3-4 pillows and feels that “it is much worse”. On examination she has a respiratory rate of 24/min, SpO2 = 92%, HR 105/min, BP 95/45 and you can hear crepitations in both lung fields. Her initial blood tests come back showing a raised plasma BNP and a bedside ECHO is done by a helpful colleague – who says “subjectively her LV isn’t contracting very well”. Hi everyone, This week I sit down with Dr Faith Njue the most qualified person here in WA to discuss the rare but important disease – peripartum cardiomyopathy. (See Faith’s Bio below). Join us in our wide ranging discussion which touches on the diagnostic challenges, demographics, proposed mechanisms and general principles involved in managing these complex patients. Thanks Faith for a great discussion! Dr Faith Njue – Bio Faith Njue graduated from the University of Western Australia and completed cardiology training in Perth. She undertook further subspeciality training in advanced heart failure/ heart transplantation at Fiona Stanley Hospital and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in Canada. Thereafter, she undertook further fellowship in cardio-obstetrics at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford (UK). She has special interest in women’s cardiovascular health, heart disease in pregnancy and heart failure. Faith runs the dedicated Western Cardiology cardio-obstetrics clinic, designed to support women at risk of or with pre-existing heart conditions, through preconception counselling, pregnancy and into the post-partum period. Cardio-obstetrics is an expanding subspecialty that focuses on prevention, early detection, and appropriate management of cardiovascular disease in pregnancy. She holds public consultant positions at Sir Charles Gairdner and Fiona Stanley hospitals. She is part of the Advanced heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant team at FSH. She is the cardiology clinical lead for High Risk pregnancy at FSH. References Anaesthesia and peripartum cardiomyopathy Chapman, K. Njue F, Rucklidge M. BJA Education, Volume 23, Issue 12, 464 – 472 Melanie Ricke-Hoch, Tobias J. Pfeffer, and Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner. Peripartumcardiomyopathy: basic mechanisms and hope for new therapies. Cardiovascular Research (2020) 116, 520–531. doi:10.1093/cvr/cvz252​ Bauersachs J, König T, van der Meer P, et al. Pathophysiology, diagnosis and management of peripartum cardiomyopathy: a position statement from the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology Study Group on peripartum cardiomyopathy. Eur J Heart Fail. 2019 Jul;21(7):827-843. doi: 10.1002/ejhf.1493. Epub 2019 Jun 27. PMID: 31243866​ 2018 ESC Guidelines for the Management of Cardiovascular Disease During Pregnancy. European Heart Journal 2018. Vol 39;3165-3241​ Bromocriptine: Koenig T, Bauersachs J, Hilfiker-Kleiner D. Bromocriptine for the Treatment of Peripartum Cardiomyopathy. Card Fail Rev. 2018 May;4(1):46-49. doi: 10.15420/cfr.2018:2:2. PMID: 29892477; PMCID: PMC5971672 Hilfiker-Kleiner D, Haghikia A, Berliner D, Vogel-Claussen J, Schwab J, Franke A, Schwarzkopf M, Ehlermann P, Pfister R, Michels G, Westenfeld R, Stangl V, Kindermann I, Kühl U, Angermann CE, Schlitt A, Fischer D, Podewski E, Böhm M, Sliwa K, Bauersachs J. Bromocriptine for the treatment of peripartum cardiomyopathy: a multicentre randomized study. Eur Heart J. 2017 Sep 14;38(35):2671-2679. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehx355. PMID: 28934837; PMCID: PMC5837241.

Hi Everyone, Welcome to Part Two of our discussion with two of the founding members of the Placenta Accreta Spectrum Team here at KEMH Dr Matt Epee-Bekima and Dr David Owen. This team was conceived in 2017 and began operating in 2018 – and has now cared for over 75 women with PAS – including 24 alone this year (2024). In this episode we continue our initial discussion with a more detailed dive into: Surgical management – team members, techniques and approach Techniques for catastophic bleeding – manual aortic compression, vascular clamping, interventional radiology Postpartum issues Controversies (ICU vs HDU, leaving placenta in -situ) Thoughts for the future Thanks Matt & David for sharing the experiences and knowledge learnt by the PAS team over the last 7 years. References https://www.kemh.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/HSPs/NMHS/Hospitals/WNHS/Documents/Clinical-guidelines/Obs-Gyn-Guidelines/Placenta-Accreta.pdf?thn=0

Hi Everyone, Join Graeme and I as we discuss two articles chosen from last months edition of IJOA (International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia). In the first we discuss an article exploring whether the use of intermittent calf compression can reduce hypotension and vasopressor use in women undergoing caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia. The second article looks at the utility of preoperative electrical stimulation of acupressure points prior to caesarean section reduces postoperative pain and improves the quality of maternal recovery. There’s a sprinkling of our usual dad jokes at the end. For regular listeners to the show join us again later this month when we hopefully will have a couple of episodes dedicated to the management of placenta accreta spectrum and an interview with the founders of the placenta accreta service setup 7 years ago here at KEMH – see you then! References International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia Effect of pneumatic leg compression on phenylephrine dose for hypotension prophylaxis via variable rate infusion at cesarean delivery: an unblinded randomized controlled trial Transcutaneous electrical acupuncture point stimulation and quality of recovery following cesarean delivery: A randomized controlled trial

Your patient arrives in the anaesthetic room next to theatre, she’s booked for a non elective caesarean for failure to progress. She has an epidural in situ and you decide try to top it up – however after 25ml of lignocaine 2% with adrenaline and around 20min of waiting the block is stuck at the umbilicus and she can still move her legs relatively freely. This is obviously not going to be adequate – she is adamant she wants to be awake to see her baby born. You sit her up, pull out the epidural and do a single shot spinal with 2.1ml of heavy bupivacaine 0.5% + fentanyl 15mcg – after all you don’t want this block to fail as well! You clean her back, lie her down and turn to talk to the midwife. When you turn back to the patient 30s later she looks a little purple and isn’t breathing……. Hi everyone join Graeme and I this week as we discuss total spinal anaesthesia – a fascinating but somewhat scary rare emergency which can occur when we use regional anaesthesia in obstetric practice. A big shout out to the team from Rotunda Hospital in Dublin who wrote the recent narrative review published in IJOA on this topic! References Total spinal anaesthesia following obstetric neuraxial blockade: a narrative review Radwan, M.A. et al.International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia, Volume 59, 104208 Sobhy S, Zamora J, Dharmarajah K, Arroyo-Manzano D, Wilson M, Navaratnarajah R, Coomarasamy A, Khan KS, Thangaratinam S. Anaesthesia-related maternal mortality in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Glob Health. 2016 May;4(5):e320-7. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(16)30003-1. PMID: 27102195.

Hi Everyone, This week Matt and I agreed to get together to do another journal club episode (or more accurately I printed out an article, put it in Matt’s pigeon hole and told him to make himself available or else!). We went to one of our favourite journals IJOA (International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia), where we chose an article from the latest edition published in May. The article is entitled “A narrative review of the literature relevant to obstetric anesthesiologists: the 2023 Gerard Ostheimer lecture.” The background to this article is that every year the north american Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) hold an annual conference. One of the highlights of these annual conferences is this lecture which is researched and then presented by a well respected obstetric anesthesiologist from the north american community. The lecture is a narrative review of the previous years published literature highlighting important papers and discussing their importance and relevance particularly in relation to current north american practice. This year’s lecture was presented by Pervez Sultan from Stanford University, and it is drawn from a review of articles published in 2022 from 66 different journals. Over 12 different themes are discussed including (but not limited to) TIVA for GA Caesareans, dexamethasone for post CS analgesia, predicting epidural blood patch success, dural puncture epidurals and a number of other interesting topics. Join Matt and I as we discuss these and muse over what relevance they may have to our current practice here in Western Australia as well as a couple terrible olympic themed dad jokes to close! References / Links A narrative review of the literature relevant to obstetric anesthesiologists: the 2023 Gerard W. Ostheimer lecture  Int J Obstet Anesth 2024 May:58:103973. doi: 10.1016/j.ijoa.2023.103973. Epub 2024 Jan 3.

A woman collapses with abdominal pain in a restaurant & then the initial evaluation in the ED she is diagnosed with suspected ruptured ectopic pregnancy. She is brought straight into your theatre and you perform a rapid sequence induction. You place your video laryngoscope into her mouth and all you see is vomitus and fluid, your yankauer sucker is blocked with food and doing nothing………… Hi everyone, This week I am joined by Dr Nathan Blakely one of our enthusiastic trainees to discuss an area he has taken a personal interest in —- the management of the soiled airway. Thanks Nathan! Blood in Airway: Useful Links / References https://youtu.be/Jaq-vHbcGi0 https://youtu.be/oMXkGgoRMpE Cook T, Woodall N, Frerk C, Project FNA. Major complications of airway management in the UK: results of the Fourth National Audit Project of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Difficult Airway Society. Part 1: anaesthesia. British journal of anaesthesia. 2011;106(5):617-31. Kei J, Mebust DP. Comparing the effectiveness of a novel suction set-up using an adult endotracheal tube connected to a meconium aspirator vs. a traditional Yankauer suction instrument. The Journal of emergency medicine. 2017;52(4):433-7. Andreae M, Cox R, Shy B, Wong N, Strayer R. 319 Yankauer outperformed by alternative suction devices in evacuation of simulated emesis. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 2016;68(4):S123. Cox R, Andreae M, Shy B, DuCanto J, Strayer R. Yankauer suction catheters with “safety” vent holes may impair safety in emergent airway management. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2017;35(11):1762-3. Nikolla DA, King B, Heslin A, Carlson JN. Comparison of Suction Rates Between a Standard Yankauer, a Commercial Large-Bore Suction Device, and a Makeshift Large-Bore Suction Device. The Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2021;61(3):265-70. Weingart SD, Bhagwan SD. A novel set-up to allow suctioning during direct endotracheal and fiberoptic intubation. Journal of clinical anesthesia. 2011;23(6):518-9. Han S, Fisher JA. Airway Management During Persistent Flooding Of the Oropharyngeal Airway. DuCanto J, Serrano KD, Thompson RJ. Novel airway training tool that simulates vomiting: suction-assisted laryngoscopy assisted decontamination (SALAD) system. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2017;18(1):117. Root CW, Mitchell OJ, Brown R, Evers CB, Boyle J, Griffin C, et al. Suction Assisted Laryngoscopy and Airway Decontamination (SALAD): A technique for improved emergency airway management. Resuscitation Plus. 2020;1:100005. Chrimes N. The Vortex: a universal ‘high-acuity implementation tool’for emergency airway management. BJA: British Journal of Anaesthesia. 2016;117(suppl_1):i20-i7. Finke S-R, Schroeder DC, Ecker H, Böttiger BW, Herff H, Wetsch WA. Comparing suction rates of novel DuCanto catheter against Yankauer and standard suction catheter using liquids of different viscosity—a technical simulation. BMC anesthesiology. 2022;22(1):285.

You receive a page from labour ward. A woman at 35/40 weeks gestation has just arrived in the hospital very distressed in a lot of pain. A quick bedside ultrasound by the obstetric team has unfortunately demonstrated a large abruption and fetal death in utero. She is contracting strongly and beside herself in pain, the team would like you to come down and place an epidural for analgesia. The team are hoping she will deliver vaginally in the next few hours. What is your approach in this situation? Join Graeme and I as we discuss this complex and challenging clinical condition and the coagulopathy that can occasionally occur. Here is a link to cases we have had in the past here at KEMH in the ROTEM Real Cases Discussed section: Case 6 – Abruption and fetal death in utero Case 11 – Abruption and severe coagulopathy References Coagulopathy and placental abruption: changing management with ROTEM-guided fibrinogen concentrate therapy 2015 Liverpool Womens Hospital – this is not open access but available through the ANZCA library or your hospital library. It contains 4 very interesting case reports Fibrinolytic and thrombotic DIC an explanation 2023 – This paper explains how there are two types of DIC one predominantly causing microvascular thrombosis and eventually factor depletion. The second which is possibly the mechanism seen in some abruptions is massive activation of fibrinolysis and fibrinogenolysis. WARNING this paper is highly technical!

You are called to review a woman in labour ward. When you arrive you are told her epidural is no longer working. The epidural was placed by a colleague 5 hours ago and was working well. However in the last 20-30 minutes she has developed breakthrough pain despite a top up and pressing the PCEA a few times. You look at her back and the epidural dressing looks fine – no obvious explanation there. Upon further questioning you are told that she had a caesarean in her previous pregnancy and she is attempting a VBAC. She tells you that since you arrived in the room the pain has changed. Now it is constant and she has developed pain in her shoulder. Suddenly the CTG deteriorates and within a few minutes the team are calling a code blue caesarean to theatre…..This is recollection of a real case from an evening shift a few years ago. As you can probably guess this week we are discussing the important and somewhat scary topic of uterine rupture. This week we are joined to discuss this topic by Dr David Owen. David is a senior obstetrician, who previous to WA worked at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and was a psychiatrist in a previous life. Thanks David! References Uterine Rupture: A Seven Year Review at a Tertiary Care Hospital in New Delhi, India Tocogram characteristics of uterine rupture: a systematic review