Laparoscopic ovarian cystectomy with abdominal wall lift during pregnancy under combined spinal-epidural anesthesia

Abdominal wall lift laparoscopic surgery is often used for patients during pregnancy because it is physiologically superior to CO2 pneumoperitoneum laparoscopic surgery. Operation for adnexal cysts is performed in the 1st trimester. We report seven cases of ovarian cysts during pregnancy, resected using gassless laparoscopic method with a whole abdominal wall lift under combined spinal-epidural anesthesia (CSEA). Combined spinal-epidural anesthesia had several advantages in these cases; 1. In the 1 st trimester, general anesthesia should be avoided. We could manage these cases without general anesthesia nor sedative medications. 2. During pregnancy, it is difficult to estimate the level of sensory blockade by spinal anesthesia. Epidural top-up helped us to easily control the level of sensory blockade. 3. Differential diagnosis of pain related to uterine contraction and postoperative pain is difficult. Post-operative analgesia was established by epidural PCA, thus anti uterine contraction medicines were prophylactically administered in only one of seven cases. There was no particular trouble during the anesthesia and all the operative procedures were performed uneventfully. Based on our limited experiences, CSEA may be a safe and appropriate anesthetic technique for laparoscopic ovarian cystectomy with abdominal wall lift during pregnancy.