TITLE
Cardiorespiratory arrest during obstetric anesthesia. A 10-year analysis in Vall d’Hebron Hospital, Barcelona
BACKGROUND AND GOAL OF STUDY
	Cardiorespiratory arrest in the obstetric population is a rare but catastrophic event. Obstetric care teams have a low exposition to this kind of critical situations, so it’s necessary to maintain a constant training, the study of its causes and the appropriate treatment in this group of patients. 
MATERIAL AND METHODS
	Retrospective study. Anesthetic procedures during 2.005 and 2.014 were analyzed. The main objective was to determine the incidence of cardiac arrest during the anesthetic assistance during labor and caesarean sections. Secondary objectives were: to determine survival tax after hospital discharge, functional prognosis after hospital discharge according to the OPC (Outcome Performance Cerebral) scale of Pittsburg-Glasgow, the etiology and the kind of anesthesia performed. 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
	36.672 anesthetic procedures were analyzed. There were 4 cases of cardiac arrest, all of them during caesarean section procedures. The initial anesthetic technique was locoregional in the 50% of patients. We found an incidence of one case each 9.168 anesthetic procedures, 1/2.567 caesarean sections. Survival tax after hospital discharge was 75%. Functional prognosis of the survivors was good in all of patients (OPC 1, 2 patients and OPC 2, 1 patient). Only one case was directly related to anesthetic procedure. 
	The causes of the cardiac arrest were: 1 case related to problems in the airway management, 1 case due to amniotic fluid embolism, 1 case related to previous cardiopathy and severe preeclampsia and the last case due to massive hemorrhage. In all of the cases a live fetus was obtained. 
CONCLUSION
	Cardiac arrest is an infrequent event during obstetric anesthesia, which requires an adequate coordination between specialties.  In our study we found an incidence of 1/9.000 obstetric anesthetic procedures related to hemorrhage, problems during the airway management and cardiomiopathy.

Cardiorespiratory arrest during obstetric anesthesia. A 10-year analysis in Vall d'Hebron Hospital, Barcelona