Guidelines for the management of women with severe pre-eclampsia.

OBJECTIVE: To provide national guidelines for the management of women with severe pre-eclampsia. DESIGN: A consensus committee of 26 experts was formed. A formal conflict-of-interest (COI) policy was developed at the onset of the process and enforced throughout. The entire guidelines process was conducted independently of any industrial funding. The authors were advised to follow the principles of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE®) system to guide assessment of quality of evidence. The potential drawbacks of making strong recommendations in the presence of low-quality evidence were emphasised. METHODS: The last SFAR and CNGOF guidelines on the management of women with severe pre-eclampsia were published in 2009. The literature is now sufficient for an update. The aim of this expert panel guidelines is to evaluate the impact of different aspects of the management of women with severe preeclampsia on maternal and neonatal morbidities separately. The experts studied questions within 7 domains. Each question was formulated according to the PICO (Patients Intervention Comparison Outcome) model and the evidence profiles were produced. An extensive literature review and recommendations were carried out and analysed according to the GRADE® methodology. RESULTS: The SFAR/CNGOF experts panel provided 25 recommendations: 8 have a high level of evidence (GRADE 1+/-), 9 have a moderate level of evidence (GRADE 2+/-), and for 7 recommendations, the GRADE method could not be applied, resulting in expert opinions. No recommendation was provided for 3 questions. After one scoring round, strong agreement was reached between the experts for all the recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: There was strong agreement among experts who made 25 recommendations to improve practices for the management of women with severe pre-eclampsia.

Incidence of akathisia after postoperative nausea and vomiting prophylaxis with droperidol and ondansetron in outpatient surgery: A multicentre controlled randomised trial.

BACKGROUND: Akathisia, a distressing movement disorder induced by butyrophenones, has been described with low doses of droperidol used for postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) prophylaxis, but the incidence remains unclear. OBJECTIVES: To determine the incidence of akathisia after PONV prophylaxis with two doses of droperidol in comparison with ondansetron, in patients undergoing ambulatory surgery. We hypothesised that the incidence of akathisia is higher with droperidol than that with ondansetron. DESIGN: Randomised controlled double blind trial. SETTING: Two University Hospital Centres and two private Clinics from January to September 2014. PATIENTS: Patients (n=297) undergoing general anaesthesia for ambulatory surgery were randomly allocated to receive PONV prophylaxis with droperidol (0.625 or 1.25 mg) or ondansetron 4 mg; patients of the three groups also received 4 mg of dexamethasone. Exclusion criteria were contraindication to droperidol and ondansetron, use of psychotropic medications or benzodiazepines or history of psychotic illness. INTERVENTIONS: Participants received droperidol (0.625 or 1.25 mg) or ondansetron 4 mg during general anaesthesia. After discharge from the postanaesthesia care unit presence and severity of akathisia were assessed using the Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale at 4 h postoperatively. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Score of the Global Clinical Assessment of Akathisia of Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale. RESULTS: The number of akathisia observed was 1/118 (0.8%) in the ondansetron group, 1/84 (1.2%) in droperidol 0.625 mg group, and 3/87 (3.4%) in droperidol 1.25 mg group. The akathisia rate difference among the three groups was not significant (P = 0.52). We could not demonstrate significant differences in the incidence of akathisia between the two doses of droperidol. The only case of marked akathisia treated with benzodiazepines was observed after droperidol 1.25 mg. CONCLUSION: The use of droperidol or ondansetron for PONV prophylaxis is associated to a low incidence of akathisia (0.8 to 3.4%) after general anaesthesia for ambulatory surgery. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01942343.

Evaluation of a continuous improvement programme of enhanced recovery after caesarean delivery under neuraxial anaesthesia.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the performance of a multidisciplinary programme for enhanced recovery after caesarean delivery under neuraxial anaesthesia. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective single-centre study. METHODS: Programme in 6 steps including 3 professional practice audits based on clinical records and questioning patients: audit T0, first "existing state", creation of a working group, drafting and implementation of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation procedure, second audit (T0+4 months), information about and implementation of corrective measures and a third audit (T0+8 months). Assessment of the performance of the continuous improvement programmes based on six measures comprising the post-caesarean rehabilitation score: duration infusion, early oral analgesia, time to removal of the urinary catheter, time to return to drinking, eating recovery time, use of carbetocin. RESULTS: Two hundred and thirty-one patients were included, with 45, 64 and 122 patients at T0, T0+4 months and T0+8 months, respectively. There was a significant increase in patients who received the recovery measures (P<0.0001 for all items) between T0 and T0+8 months: removal of the infusion before 24h (49% versus 93.5%), drinking before 6h (31% versus 55%), eating before 6h (2% versus 38.5%), early oral analgesia before 24h (38% versus 95%), withdrawal of the urinary catheter before 24h (80% versus 95%), use of carbetocin (0% versus 99%). CONCLUSION: Improved practices in rehabilitation after caesarean can be obtained by setting up a multidisciplinary programme as part of a quality approach.

[Management of major postpartum hemorrhage]. / Prise en charge des hémorragies graves du postpartum.

Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is defined by loss of greater than 500 mL of blood following vaginal delivery or 1,000 mL of blood following cesarean section, in the first 24 hours postpartum. Its incidence is up to 5% and the severe forms represent 1% of births. PPH is the first cause of obstetrical maternal mortality in France and 90% of these deaths are considered as preventable. Its management is multidisciplinary (obstetricians, anesthetists, midwives, biologists and interventional radiologists), based on treatment protocols where time is a major prognosis factor. In case of failure of the initial measures (oxytocin, manual placenta removal, uterus and birth canal examination), the management of severe forms includes active resuscitation (intravenous fluids, blood transfusion, vasoactive drugs), haemostatic interventions (sulprostone, tamponnade and haemostatic suture, surgical procedures and arterial embolization) and the correction of any potential coagulopathy (administration of blood products and haemostatic agents).