Ondansetron before spinal anesthesia in cesarean sections: An evidence-based educational intervention

Background and Review of Literature: Spinal anesthesia is the current gold standard of practice for providing care in elective cesarean sections. However, spinal anesthesia is commonly associated with untoward side effects including activating the Bezold-Jarisch reflex leading to significant hypotension and bradycardia. Current evidence-based literature shows the administration of a 5-HT3 antagonist, such as intravenous Zofran, can reduce these side effects as well as reduce the amount of vasopressors used to provide optimal patient care. Purpose: This study explored the efficacy of an educational intervention on increasing the willingness and knowledge to utilize a 5-HT3 antagonist before a spinal anesthetic in cesarean sections Methods: An email list of 25 active anesthesia providers at a large metropolitan hospital was acquired and presented the educational opportunity via email. This included a Qualtrics pre-educational questionnaire, an attached educational PowerPoint, and a Qualtrics post-educational questionnaire. These helped to determine current anesthetic practices, basic knowledge of Zofran, and willingness to adopt a 5-HT3 antagonist into anesthetic practices before spinal anesthesia. Implications/Conclusion: The implementation of an educational intervention on eight anesthesia providers significantly increased education and knowledge. Alternatively, the educational intervention did not significantly increase willingness to change anesthetic practices due to the high extremely willing response rate in the pre-educational questionnaire.

Creator

• Jimison, Madison

Language

• English

Keyword

• ondansetron
• Zofran
• 5-HT3 antagonist
• spinal anesthesia
• subarachnoid block
• cesarean sections
• blood pressure
• hemodynamics
• hypotension

Date created

• 2023

Resource type

• Research Paper

Rights statement

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/