This new addition to our highly successful A Practical Approach to Anesthesia series is a comprehensive, accessible guide to obstetric anesthesia, with the substance and depth of a textbook and the convenient, user-friendly features of a handbook. It focuses sharply on clinical issues and is written in outline format for quick reference, with numerous tables, figures, and photographs.

Major sections cover pharmacology and physiology, antepartum considerations, labor and delivery, postpartum issues, and disease states in obstetric patients, including a chapter on obesity and pregnancy. The concluding chapter reviews current guidelines from the American Society of Anesthesiologists, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and American Academy of Pediatrics.

SECTION I PHARMACOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY

• Physiologic Changes of Pregnancy
• Uteroplacental Drug Transfer, Blood Flow, and Teratogenicity
• Local Anesthetics and Toxicity
• Obstetric Medications

SECTION II ANTEPARTUM CONSIDERATIONS

• Maternal Assessment
• Informed Consent, Documentation, and Medicolegal Issues
• Non-Obstetric Surgery During Pregnancy

SECTION III LABOR AND DELIVERY

• Fetal Assessment and Monitoring
• Maternal Infection and Fever
• Non-Neuraxial Analgesic Techniques
• Choice of Neuraxial Analgesia and Local Anesthetics
• Impact of Analgesia on Labor and Delivery Outcomes
• Anesthesia for Cesarean Delivery
• Difficult Airway Management in the Pregnant Patient
• Anesthesia for Multiple Gestation and Breech Presentation
• Obstetric Emergencies
• Amniotic Fluid Embolism
• Newborn Resuscitation

SECTION IV POSTPARTUM ISSUES

• Postcesarean Analgesia
• Management of Postdural Puncture Headache
• Neurologic Deficits following Labor and Delivery
• Postpartum Tubal Ligation

SECTION V DISEASE STATES

• Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy
• Endocrine Disorders
• Thrombophilias/Coagulopathies
• Cardiac Disease in the Obstetric Patient
• Neurological and Neuromuscular Disease
• Renal and Hepatic Disease in the Pregnant Patient
• Obstetric Anesthesia for Parturients with Respiratory Diseases
• Obesity and Pregnancy

SECTION VI GUIDELINES FROM NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

• Guidelines from National Organizations: American Society of Anesthesiologists, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and American Academy of Pediatrics

INDEX