Background
There has been an increase in the use of spinal anaesthesia for Caesarean section (CS) in Nigeria in the past decades. There is, therefore, a need to evaluate the level of satisfaction among patients that had spinal anaesthesia, as an index of the quality of reproductive health care.
Methodology
A prospective observational study of 380 consenting parturients in ASA classes I, II, and III, who underwent CS under spinal anaesthesia between January and December 2019. Satisfaction score was assessed using a three-point Likert scale. Data were analysed using [IBM SPSS software version-22]. The level of statistical significance was set at p-value <0.05.
Results
A total of 380 consenting patients underwent spinal anaesthesia within the study period with 219 (57.6%) aged ≥30 years. Most were emergency CS 267 (70.3%). Most patients 294 (77.4%) expressed satisfaction for being involved in decision-making about the choice of anaesthesia technique. The majority of the patients 333 (87.6%) were satisfied with pain relief during the operation. The complications experienced by the patients intraoperatively included dizziness, 50 (13.2%), shivering, 139 (36.6%), and intraoperative nausea and vomiting, 48 (12.6%). Overall, 295 (77.6%) of the patients expressed willingness to have spinal anaesthesia again in the future, out of the 295, 293 (99.4%) were satisfied with the current spinal anaesthesia. P = 0.000
Conclusion
Maternal satisfaction to spinal anaesthesia in this study was high. This could be attributed to patient’s participation in decision-making, prompt treatment of complications, and overall good anaesthetic care.